Eureka seveN: One Year Later
by Holobalobalo
Summary: One year after the events of Eureka Seven, Renton and Eureka are awoken in the depths of an unknown forest by an old friend. Not a day later, an assassination attempt targeting someone in the group is made, and a new adventure begins.
1. P1 Start: Wonders of a World Forgotten

"Renton, lets go back." said Eureka,

"Yeah, back to our planet." replied Renton, and with that the two kissed, and plummeted back down towards Earth. Renton raised his head and stared into Eureka's eyes. _Is this… a dream? Am I dreaming? _He thought to himself,_ how can such beauty possibly exist?_ Then a sudden fatigue hit him, and the world slowly faded before him.

Part One Begin

Chapter One: Wonders of a World Forgotten

"Renton! Renton! Wake up!" Renton awoke to a voice of unknown origin. _E-Eureka? No, that's a male voice, it sounds familiar. _He slowly opened his eyes,

"Good, you're awake."

"W, Who-" he stuttered as he wiped his eyes, "Dominic? What are you doing here?" asked Renton.

"What am I doing here? What are YOU doing here? Why haven't you gone home? You're family is worried, the kids are wishing on stars every night for you're safe return."

"Every night? How long have I been out?"

"I've been searching for you for weeks now, where have you-"

"Weeks? How long have I been unconscious?" interrupted Renton,

"What? You've been unconscious all this time?" Dominic asked in an astounded voice. "Well, its been a year since you went off in the typeZero and saved Eureka." Dominic replied.

_A year? No, that's not possible, I couldn't have survived a year without food or water. Unless someone was, wait, Eureka! What about, "_Eureka! Where's Eureka? Is she alright?" asked Renton, his voice shaking, as he jumped to his feet and scanned the area, overwhelmed by panic,

"Don't worry, she's right over there, still sleeping." Replied Dominic Calmly.

"Eureka!" yelled Renton. He ran over to Eureka, who was laying curled up next to a tree.

"Eureka, please wake up!" he whispered as he shook her gently. She stirred, slowly opened her eyes, and blinked a few times.

"Renton? Where are we?"

"Eureka, thank goodness." said Renton, exhaling a deep breath.

He looked around, he hadn't actually thought about where they were. It was dark, but it seemed as if they were in a small forest, next to a body of water. "Hey, this place kind of reminds me of… that 'promised land', is this… the Earth?" Renton asked.

"What? You don't remember? The Scab Coral and the humans split up into two separate universes so as to coexist with each other" replied Dominic.

"Oh yea, that's right, I had almost forgotten" said Renton

"Dominic?" asked Eureka

"Yea, he said he's been searching for us for weeks now, and that it's been a year since the humans and the Scab Coral separated into different universes." Replied Renton, "I'm sorry if I've worried you or been a burden, being unconscious for a whole year now."

"A whole year? The last thing I remember… Was falling, back down to the earth with you." she blinked a few times, then started violently and gasped, clapping both hands over her mouth, "The kids! Where are the kids?" Eureka squealed urgently

"The kids were dropped off at Axel's house. All of them and you, Eureka, have been officially adopted by him into the Thurston family. They have been waiting for you two to return for a year now, you should go to them." Replied Dominic.

Eureka sighed with relief, but really didn't take in the 'adopted' part. "What's that?" she said, pointing towards the body of water, and walked away towards it.

"Yeah, we should, if We've really been away for a year now." said Renton,

"What? You don't trust me?" but before Renton could reply,

"Renton! Look!" exclaimed Eureka, who was looking out over the body of water. She turned her face towards Renton, and he saw that she was blushing.

"What is it?" he asked, curious.

"The moon." She said softly, smiling.

Renton couldn't see the moon through the dense treetops, so he walked closer to the body of water, and closer to Eureka. Just as they were side by side he could see it. Up in the cloudless sky the moon seemed far closer than ever before, and upon it were engraved the names 'Eureka' and 'Renton', surrounded by a large heart. Eureka leaned on Renton, who blushed, smiled, held her hand and looked back towards the moon.

_I'll let them enjoy themselves for awhile. _thought Dominic, with a small smile. He sat down and leaned against a tree watching the hero and the angel.

"We should probably get some rest." said Eureka softly awhile later.

Renton, who was thoroughly enjoying the moment, reluctantly agreed. "Yeah, tomorrow we'll have to get up early to start off towards Bellforest, wouldn't want to keep the family waiting much longer."

Replied Renton with a smile. Eureka was a little shocked by this statement, but recovered after a second. "I'm going to have to learn more about a 'family'" she said, and she returned Renton's smile. With this they leaned against a nearby tree, and against each other, said their goodnights, and slowly fell asleep.

"Sleep easy." said Dominic, but he himself had trouble sleeping, and eventually gave up and settled with just leaning against a tree.


	2. Unwarranted Hostility

Chapter Two: Unwarranted Hostility

An hour or so passed without event, but then Dominic spotted something glinting in the bushes, something metal. _Is that? No, that's a…_ "Look out!" he yelled, and dived at Renton and Eureka not a moment to soon. A single gunshot rang out from just out of Dominic's range of sight. He drew his handgun and fired a few blind shots into the foliage where he had seen the metal object.

"Ah! What was that for?" exclaimed Renton, surprised,

"Ouch." said Eureka softly, holding her arm, which was bent at an awkward angel.

"Eureka! Are you alright?" asked Renton, concerned.

"I'm sorry!" said Dominic, as he drew his handgun and ran into the bushes where he had seen the glint of metal earlier. _There's nothing here?_ he thought, And there was indeed nothing there. At the time it was still too dark to search the ground for any evidence of human presence, _We cant stay here any longer. _he thought, and ran back to where Renton and Eureka were.

Renton was bending over Eureka, who was holding her arm crying softly. "Are you alright?" asked Dominic, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? I think you just broke her arm! What the hell were you thinking?" replied Renton, infuriated.

"Look there, on the tree." Replied Dominic, pointing at the tree Renton and Eureka had been leaning on. Renton looked, and he saw a clean hole, about the size of his thumb, all the way through the tree.

"What happened?" asked Renton as Dominic reached the tree.

"Someone just tried to shoot you." said Dominic simply as he leaned over Eureka.

He began to test Eureka's arm. He bent it a little, and she squinted and bit her lip.

"It's not broken, but you shouldn't move it until we can get it properly checked." said Dominic, and he frowned.

"We cant stay here for the rest of the night." stated Renton,

"Of course not, my bike is parked in a small clearing to the west, we should head there right away, and stay alert."

"I thought you couldn't tell directions." said Renton, helping Eureka onto her feet.

"I learn fast"

"Lets hurry." said Eureka, and they started off west, dodging trees along the way. Light was seeping between the dense leaves by the time they reached the clearing.

"We're here." said Dominic, panting, as the three emerged into a bright, sunlit field.

All three of them were temporarily blinded. Their eyes quickly began to adjust to the light, but before they could fully recover, a gunshot was heard from the near end of the field, then another gunshot from right in front of Eureka, then a dull thud and a yell of pain.

"Dominic!" exclaimed both Renton and Eureka at the same time, as there eyes adjusted and they saw Dominic, twitching on the ground in front of Eureka.

"D… Did I get him?" asked Dominic. Eureka leaned down over Dominic and tried to locate his wound while Renton ran off in the direction of the gunshot he'd heard, yelling,

"Eureka, take care of Dominic!"

"Renton!" exclaimed Eureka, but did as she was told.

When Renton reached the place where he believed the gun shot to have originated, his could find no body, but there was a trail of blood leading deeper into the small forest. He clenched his fist at his side, then turned and ran back to Dominic and Eureka. "It looks like Dominic hit him, but he's not dead" said Renton,

"Dominic has lost consciousness, the shot didn't hit any vital areas, but he wont last long if we don't bandage the wound. The bullet penetrated the body and came out the other side, so we don't have to worry about removing it."

Renton pulled off his jacket and attempted to bandage the wound with it.

"It's not very good, and we'll have to tighten it about every minute, but its better than nothing. We should get him to the bike." said Renton, frowning.

Eureka agreed, and they carried Dominic to his bike near the far end of the fiend.

"What is this?" asked Renton, shocked.

"I…"

The bike was torn apart, its pieces scattered around the vicinity.

"damn it!" exclaimed Renton furiously. "What do we do now? I have no idea where we are, we cant move far with Dominic like this."

"We should rest and treat Dominic's wounds as best we can" said Eureka. Renton objected to this at first, but before he said anything he remembered something that he had promised Eureka a long time ago, that he would always believe in her, and so he agreed. But not five seconds later, Eureka heard something in the distance. "What's that?" she asked, "It sounds like a jet."

Just as Eureka finished that sentence, a familiar LFO crossed into the clearing, spotted them, pulled a sharp turn and landed. "Nirvash!" yelled Eureka and Renton simultaneously.

"How? Who can pilot it?"


	3. Fame

Chapter Three: Fame

The Nirvash had returned to the spec2 form. It's cockpit opened, and Anemone jumped out of the co-pilot seat and sprinted towards Dominic. "Dominic!" she yelled, pushing through Eureka and Renton to get to him, tears flying out of her eyes as she ran. She bent over him, and cried harder than ever. "Dominic! Dominic! Dominic!" she yelled, shaking him violently.

"It's alright, he's just unconscious, he'll be fine." Said Renton, swooping in and attempting to pull Anemone off of Dominic, "But you have to stop shaking him or you might aggravate the wou-"

he was cut off by a fist to his face, which sent him flying back a few feet. Anemone stopped yelling and shaking Dominic, but continued to cry, leaning over him.

"Renton! Are you alright?" asked Eureka,

"Yeah, I'm fine." Replied Renton in a muffled sort of voice, clutching his nose, which was bleeding.

_I should have guessed that Anemone was the one piloting Nirvash. After all she did pilot theEND._

Thought Renton. "Anemone, we need to get Dominic to a hospital right away. Please, you have to get off him just long enough to get him into the Nirvash." he said softly.

Anemone looked over at him, then looked down again and nodded. She got up, then she, Renton and Eureka picked Dominic up. They began to carry him towards the Nirvash, but another gunshot startled them, and they almost dropped Dominic. They all looked towards where the shot had come from, the Nirvash. In the cockpit there stood a single figure, silhouetted against the sun, it's right arm was extended, pointing over Renton's head, towards the dense trees and bushes directly behind him. The three stared for a few seconds, then simultaneously winced and averted their eyes from the sun.

"Look." Said Eureka, pointing towards the same place as the person in the Nirvash had been pointing.

An arm protruded from a dense line of bushes. _Is that..? _Eureka's thoughts were interrupted by a soft thud from near the Nirvash. The person had jumped out of the cockpit. It could now be seen that it was a boy around Renton's age. The boy had brown, tangled, shoulder length hair and wore a dark blue, almost black t-shirt, red and black sneakers and cacky shorts with quite a few pockets, on which there hung a handgun in a holster. After a moment, he put one hand in his pocket, brushed his hair out of his eyes with the other and stated, "Hey, Renton and Eureka Thurston right?" He asked curtly.

"How'd you know?" asked Renton,

"Who doesent? First you're on the cover of the most-read addition of rayout to date," here he pulled the 'Pacific State' addition of rayout magazine out of one of his many pockets, "then you're names get engraved on the moon. Plus those wings are a dead giveaway. To put it simply, you're famous." he ended, pocketing the magazine and broadening his grin.

"Anyway, my name's Tyler. I don't have a last name." said the boy.

_Doesent have a last name?_ Thought Renton, as he looked up into the boys face, and saw that _His eyes, there the same as Eureka's! _"You're a-" he was interrupted by a queer expression on the boy's face, clearly telling him to stop, his grin faltering slightly.

"There's no time to be talking, we need to get Dominic back to the Gekko-Go, its not far from here." he said, pointing at Dominic, then back at the Nirvash.

"Wait, how do you know about Dominic, and was it you piloting the Nirvash?" asked Renton.

"And who was that?" he said, pointing towards the arm near the bushes.

Tyler sighed, "There's no time for questions." he replied, walking forward to help carry Dominic to the Nirvash.

Once they had gotten Dominic into the co-pilots seat, Anemone quickly jumped in behind him, and then Tyler, who pointed at Renton and Eureka stating: "I was only a temporary replacement, you to should pilot the Nirvash again."

Renton nodded, but Eureka was distracted greeting the Nirvash and apologizing for worrying it. When Renton saw what she was doing he quickly ran over to do the same, then they both got into the pilots seat of the Nirvash, it was definitely a tight fit, Renton was forced to hug the wall so as not to hurt Eureka's arm.


	4. Getting Acquainted

Chapter Four: Getting Acquainted

It had been an hour now, and an extremely slow and cramped one, too. Most had been crushed half to death, and all were miserable. The only one not soar all over was Eureka, because of her arm. Everyone would stay clear of her so as not to hurt her, but this actually troubled her more than it helped, she didn't like being avoided. Renton frowned even harder,

"'It's not far from here.' huh?"

"Patience" replied Tyler, "I've got enough on my hands dealing with Dominic and Anemone, I don't need you moaning and groaning every ten minutes."

"Patience? I've been 'patient' for an hour now!"

"You've been complaining all the way here, 'are we there yet?' 'what about now?'"

"You know what? I don't like you…" stated Renton, leaning his head on his hand and shifting his gaze ahead. The clouds seemed further off then he remembered.

Nine more minutes passed without event, Renton shifted his gaze again, this time towards Eureka. _She looks troubled. _"Eureka, what's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

She looked at him, then looked down again and said, "It's nothing."

"No, there's definitely something wrong, please tell me, I cant stand seeing you like this."

She hesitated, but decided to confide in him, "It… It may sound a little strange…" Here she speeded up a bit, as though she wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible, "It's just that I cant stand being avoided, I don't know why, It, It makes me feel… Lost…"

Renton placed his hand on hers; she started and looked at Renton, It felt as if she had just awoken from a bad dream, warmth and relief spread throughout her body, and she smiled.

"There it is." Interrupted Tyler, looking ahead. Eureka, Renton and Anemone also looked ahead, and saw what they had been waiting to see, the Gekko-Go was a large white and green ship. Stolen from the military before it hit mass production by Holland, it was now used by the Gekko-State for various lawless purposes.

Tyler turned the communicator on, which had apparently been off on their way to the Gekko-Go, the reason for which everyone in the Nirvash was about to discover. "This is Tyler, requesting permission to board the Gekko."

"TYLER! What the HELL were you thinking, taking the Nirvash out without permission at a time like this?"

Renton jumped and pulled his earphones off, hitting his head on the ceiling and temporarily taking his hands off the steering wheel, (which caused the Nirvash to perform a large jerk, and everyone else hit their heads on the ceiling also) as he recognized the furious voice of Holland. He hadn't heard Holland this mad since the last time he was beat by him.

"You KNOW what the military wants right now! You could have handed them two vital pieces to their puzzle with that little fucking stunt you just pulled! Get back on this ship RIGHT NOW! I'll be waiting for you're ass in the hangar!"

"Roger." replied Tyler with a slight grin as he turned off the communicator before Holland could tell him how much of a cocky a son-of-a-bitch he was.

"I wonder how he'll react when he figures out I brought you two here." he thought aloud, looking at Renton and Eureka, his grin widening.

Despite all previous quarrels between the two, Renton couldn't help but return Tyler's grin, he hadn't quite forgiven Holland for his attitude towards him during the majority of his previous stay at the Gekko-Go. _Maybe he's not so bad after all. _Renton thought. Eureka however, looked down and squinted in worry. She had never admitted it, but it always unnerved her when Holland yelled, although she didn't really know why.

"What is it that the military is looking for?" she asked "What 'vital pieces' did Holland mean?"

Tyler directed his gaze at her for a moment, with an expression as if he was pondering something, then looked away and said, "I don't think I'm the right person to tell you that. Try asking Holland when we get back on board the Gekko."

"There's no need, this kid says that the two pieces Holland was talking about, were Anemone, and herself." said Eureka, petting the Nirvash gently with her good hand. "But she also says, that they are looking for me too, and many other things and people."

_Eureka, Anemone and the Nirvash?_ thought Renton, unconsciously reaching out with his own hand to pet the Nirvash.

An awkward silence followed. The catapult had been lowered by now, they were all sure that Holland awaited in the hangar, they were all curious as to how we would react, all except Anemone, who was quickly becoming aggregated with the rest of her shipmates. After the incredibly long hour, she was finally about to blow.

"How could you idiots be worried over how Holland will react to seeing you while Dominic is lying here in this condition?" she hissed, tears flying out of her eyes as she shook her head aggressively, "Have you all forgotten the reason we came here right away, instead of to Eureka and Renton's home, which was much closer? Dominic needs medical help!" she stopped and cried silently, looking at Dominic's face.

_That's right! I, I had completely forgotten! _Thought Renton. Eureka's eyes widened in a shocked expression, _How, How could I be so selfish… I actually forgot about him._ she thought, clenching her good fist, which had still been petting the Nirvash, looking down and squinting with mixed emotion.

She felt anguish, panic, and anger at herself all at once.

"Prepare for landing" she heard Renton say, and she could tell by his voice that he felt the same way she did, and it cheered her up just slightly to know that she wasn't alone, that she was with the one she loved, and that they were both capable of the same feelings and emotions, something that at one time, she couldn't have said truthfully.


	5. Onboard the GekkoGo

Chapter Five: Onboard the Gekko-Go

Before long the Nirvash had arrived in the hanger, and the catapult had shut behind it. Holland stood waiting in the hangar as promised, along with Matthieu and Mischa. Holland looked pissed, Mischa looked worried, Matthieu looked bored, and all three looked at the Nirvash. Renton opened the cockpit, and Tyler and Anemone carried Dominic out of the Nirvash.

"Hey, what's wrong with him?" asked Matthieu,

"He was shot out in the forest." Replied Eureka, "Please, Mischa, he needs medical attention!"

Mischa blinked, "That voice-"

"sounds familiar." finished Matthieu.

Holland's eyes widened, "Eureka?" he whispered as Eureka stood up in the cockpit, "Eureka, what happened to you?" asked Holland,

"What do you mean?"

"You've got wings!"

Eureka blinked a few times, looked back at her wings, then back at Holland and said, "Please! Look at him quickly, I don't know what condition he's in."

Holland looked at Dominic, _I could swear I've seen that kid before. _By now Mischa had run to Dominic and took Tyler's place, (as it was obvious that Holland wanted a talk with him) then carried him with Anemone out of the hangar, towards the Infirmary. Eureka and Renton jumped out of the Nirvash.

"I'll have a talk with you two later, but for now, everyone out of the hangar. Except you, Tyler."

Renton, Eureka and Matthieu did as they were told. But after they were out of the hangar, Matthieu put a hand out, stopping Renton and Eureka from proceeding.

"Hold on." He said, looking down at them over his shoulder, "If this all goes how I think it will, it'll be one hell of a welcome back gift." He finished, breaking into a large grin.

"Huh?" asked Renton, and Eureka tilted her head to the side.

Matthieu led them back to the door leading into the hangar, opened it part way and beckoned them to look through the crack in the door, Renton did so but Eureka hesitated, saying, "I would rather not, Holland doesent want me to."

"Hey, you don't have to if you don't want to, but it'll be good.

"-ne sensed that Dominic was injured" said Tyler calmly,

"I don't give a damn! Even someone like you should know what's more important between Dominic and millions of innocent people!"

"I made a promise to myself a long time ago. I promised myself that I would never knowingly let another friendly life fade unless it was absolutely necessary."

"Then why did you take the Nirvash out, let alone with Anemone in it, knowing that it would put the military that much closer to obtaining this extreme power?"

"Because I have confidence in my abilities, and didn't intend to lose either the Nirvash or Anemone."

"But what if you had?"

"But I didn't."

"YOU SON-OF-A-BIT-" Holland stopped abruptly and leapt back with a shocked expression as Tyler took a step forward and extended his index and middle fingers to touch Holland's chest.

Both were silent for a moment, then Tyler withdrew his arm and spoke, "If there's one thing you should learn about me as the leader, it's to never speak ill of my mother in front of me."

Holland unclipped his personal communicator and spoke into it.

"Matthieu, get down to the hangar and escort Tyler to the brig."

"Roger leader, I'm on my way" he said into his own personal communicator, and beckoned Renton and Eureka to get away from the door. They did so, and after a few seconds Matthieu walked into the hangar. Eureka and Renton were walking towards the living room when they both thought of the trouble of explaining events over and over, and decided instead to head to Eureka's old room instead.

Renton offered to explain what had occurred in the hangar to Eureka, but she simply responded, "No, whatever it was, I wasn't meant to know."

"But it involves the military's plan that you were asking about back in the Nirvash."

"Then I'll ask Holland about it personally when he's not so…"

"Riled up?" he finished for her, she blinked, then lowered her eyes.

"Here it is." said Renton as they arrived at Eureka's old room. The door made a swoosh as it opened, sliding to the side. Eureka walked in, followed by Renton. The room was almost exactly the same as a year earlier, many of Eureka's belongings were still there, packed away in a corner, there were two bunk beds, one on either side of the door. Eureka walked directly to the one she always slept in (the bottom one on the left from the door) and laid down on her back. Then, a few seconds later, to her surprise, Renton laid down next to her. For a moment they both looked into each other in the eyes, then they both smiled and held each others hands. Even though they had only been awake for a few hours, fatigue drowned them and they quickly fell asleep.


	6. ‘Welcome back’

Chapter Six: 'Welcome back'

Renton awoke to a small click, he slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He blinked a few times then looked around the room, he blinked again as his eyes came in contact with a strange object, it was a circle of plastic, the interior of which seemed to be made of glass, but before he could work anything else out about the strange object, it emitted a blinding flash and another small click,

"Agh!" he exclaimed as he quickly closed and covered his eyes and recoiled a few inches.

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked a voice from behind the object, and a face poked out over the top.

The face wore a red mustache and the makings of a beard, it also wore a red beret. It took Renton a few seconds to recognize it,

"Stoner?"

"Hey." replied Stoner, the owner and writer of the self-published magazine rayout, which starred the rebel military group known as Gekko-State, and put into writing their views on the worlds situation and the flaws of the military.

"You know, it's just not right to be taking pictures of people while their sleeping!" scolded Renton,

but Stoner simply said, "Shush." And pointed behind him, where Eureka was still sleeping.

"Oh." said Renton,

"so that's why."

"Yup," replied stoner, "Since you two left, I've been getting countless e-mails asking weather you were alright or not. It's finally time for another five star issue! 'Eureka and Renton Return!', it'll be the trump card that keeps rayout flourishing. Renton, do you know exactly how popular you and Eureka actually are now a days? You're like a world wide phenomenon, man, you're even bigger than Holland, and I think he's kind of pissed about that to tell you the truth over the whole year you've been gone messages about you keep on coming, there are rumors everywhere, but I want to hear the truth, straight from you're mouths."

"How long did it take you to think up that speech?" joked Renton, amused,

"Right off the top of my head, man."

"Alright, but I'm telling you now that its not much. If you're still interested, we'll wait for Eureka to wake up. Oh, and do you have the time?"

"Yea, its six a.m. on the dot."

"Alright, then if you don't mind, I would like to eat breakfast first."

"Yup, it'll be an even bigger hit if you're both interviewed together! I'd also like to get a good shot of Eureka with those wings! I'll interview you two in the evening after you're mission." said Stoner energetically, and he practically skipped to the door.

"Oh, and don't worry about everyone asking you questions, Holland agreed to disallow any questions except mine, if they want to ask a question, they'll ask me, if I know I'll tell them, and if I don't I might Just ask you, so you'll only be asked a question once." with this said, he exited the room before Renton could ask him about the mission or thank him.

Renton sat on a different bed from Eureka so as not to disturb her, and watched her silently. _I haven't even rejoined Gekko-State, how can they possibly be putting me on missions? And without my consent too, I don't need missions, I need to get back home and see grandpa and the kids, I'm sure they're worried. _

"Oh, well. It's not like I've been very useful over the past year, it would be nice if I could do something to help someone out."

When after a few minutes Eureka hadn't even stirred, Renton sighed and got to his feet, then took one last look at Eureka and walked out of the room for breakfast._ That's not true, Renton, I don't know that I would have even had the courage to return and show myself to Holland and the rest if it wasn't for you're reassurance. Did you really not notice how you helped me?_ thought Eureka, sitting up and opening her eyes. She sat there for a minute or two, then got up, looking at the floor in thought, and walked to the door. As the door opened and she walked out, she almost collided with Tyler, who pulled a quick maneuver and avoided her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said,

"Sorry?" he responded, with a confused expression, then shrugged and walked in the direction of the living room with one hand in his pocket.

"Where are you going? Shouldn't you be in the brig?" asked Eureka, as she walked after him.

"I was called out for a mission." He said simply.

"With Renton?"

"I don't know." he said, then he stopped walking and looked over his shoulder, grinning wildly, and said,

"But I do know… that it's been far too long." And with this he looked back ahead and continued to walk towards the living room.

Eureka's eyes widened in terror as she saw the crazed expression on his face, and recognized the sentence. _That expression, those words, those are, they're the same as… Who is he? _before she could think any further, a searing pain in her head brought her to her knees, she grabbed her head with both hands and let out a small gasp, before the hallway faded black, and she thought no more.

Renton heard the swoosh of the living room door and looked up hopefully, but looked back down to his food when he saw it was Tyler.

"Where've you been?" demanded Holland, but Tyler simply glanced at him with a small smile and took his seat. _Uh oh, that's trouble._ thought Renton, preparing to cover his ears, but Holland only took a deep breath and a few seconds to compose himself, then prepared to announce the mission, but Renton interrupted,

"Hey, what's with you volunteering me for missions? My top priority right now should be to get back home and meet grandpa and the kids!"

"Think of it as payment for allowing you to sleep in our beds and ear our food." sneered Holland.

Renton blinked, then lowered his gaze, _He's right, we did do those things, so this is the least I could do in payment. _Holland seemed to know what Renton was thinking, and continued on to announce the mission.

"Alright, as most of us know, there's a large convoy of military carriers, loaded with valuable material heading north right past us, over the Gal mountain range."

"And we're going to ambush them and steal the valuables?" finished Tyler,

"You know, kid, you're really getting on my nerves." said Holland through gritted teeth.

Tyler blinked a few times, "I don't understand."

"The hell you don't!" yelled Holland, standing up and slamming fist on the wall next to him, _Damn it, this kid REALLY pisses me off. _He thought, and took another deep breath, then sat back down and continued,

"Ugh, never mind. Yes, you're going to ambush them, but no, you're not going to take the supplies. I wish we could but they're too heavy for any of the LFOs to carry, including the Nirvash. Which reminds me, where's Eureka?"

"The last time I saw her she was still sleeping." Replied Renton,

"No, I ran into her coming out of her room. We were both coming here, but I noticed she had disappeared about half way." stated Tyler, "Why? Is she coming with us?" "No I, never mind."

A mischievous grin crossed Tyler's face,

"Still you're 'pet project' eh?"

this was the last straw, Holland finally broke. He jumped from his seat, knocking it over, and ran yelling at Tyler, who lazily got up himself, took his hand out of his pocket and sighed. Holland threw a punch at Tyler's stomach, Tyler sidestepped it and preformed a quick spinning motion, on one foot which landed him behind Holland, he then lightly pushed on Holland's back, which sent him stumbling forward. Holland was caught by Hap, who stood him back upright and said, "Holland, you really shouldn't."

Tyler sighed again and stated, "You're getting to old. It's a shame, I was hoping for a good brawl, I wont even need this." And he pocketed his hand again. This angered Holland even further, his eyes widened and he grinded his teeth.

"I'm fucking sick of you and you're damned fake smiles!" and he charged once more. He threw a fist at Tyler's face, which Tyler dodged with a quick duck, then received a hard elbow to the chest, which knocked the wind out of him. He staggered back, looking down and holding his stomach. Then felt something touch his back, he turned around and saw Tyler touching him with his middle and index fingers again.

"I win." Stated Tyler, with a blank expression, then he lowered his hand and backed off, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

"I suggest you don't fight me again. That is, unless you like being humiliated in front of you're crew."

Holland looked around, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Stoner lowering his camera. _Damn it. _thought Holland, _Damn it, damn it, damn it! _He stood there for awhile, and the room was silent.

"One day." he said aloud, his eyes thinning, and he left the room saying, "You all know what to do."

Renton had a hard time processing what had just happened. _Wait, what just happened? Wasn't Holland a member of the SOF? In fact, wasn't he the ace of the SOF? Did Holland actually just get beat up by that kid? Was he actually trying? What just happened?_

"Renton, we should be getting to the hangar, we're setting off at six fifteen to arrive at the ambush point before the military, its six ten now."

"Oh, right." replied Renton. Tyler offered him a hand, but he ignored it and got up on his own. _What is this feeling? Is it jealousy, or anger, or is it just confusion?_


	7. Realization

Chapter Seven: Realization

Mischa entered her infirmary to find Anemone on her knees next to Dominic's bed,

"My goodness, you're still here?"

Anemone looked over her shoulder at Mischa and nodded, "Is he alright?" she asked,

"I'm pretty sure we went through this before."

"Yes, but." Anemone silenced herself and looked back at Dominic.

Mischa sighed, "The bullet has been removed and the wound bandaged, nothing vital was hit. He's in stable condition and should be back on his feet in no time." she said,

"Mischa," squealed Anemone,

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

Behind her, the infirmary door opened once again, and Renton walked in, followed by Tyler, _Busy two days, _thought Mischa, _I'm getting tired of explaining it._ and she sighed. _Here it comes. _

"Mischa, how is he?" asked Renton,

"The infirmary hasn't been so busy since we let everyone in after Eureka's little incident last year."

she sighed, _I've explained it so many times I've got it memorized. _thought Mischa, as she prepared to explain Dominic's condition once again.

"The bullet has been removed and the wound bandaged, nothing vital was hit. He's in stable condition and should be back on his feet in no time." she repeated in a slightly annoyed tone,

"Is something wrong?" asked Renton,

"Uh, no, nothing" replied Mischa putting on a false smile. _This boy's been nothing but trouble to me. _she thought, glancing at Dominic.

Suddenly a light beeping filled the room, originating from one of the many medical devices in the room. _Sounds like he's awake, thank god._ she thought, and she repeated those words out loud, just barely stopping herself before she said 'thank god'.

"Dominic!" cried Anemone happily, as she jumped to her feet and embraced him.

"Ah! Anemone, that hurts, please stop." said Dominic sleepily,

she withdrew and tilted her head to the side, shutting her eyes and widening her smile.

"Why don't you go ask him how he is yourself?" suggested Mischa,

but Tyler objected, saying that they needed to be at the Nirvash in a minute, and that it took two minutes to get there from the infirmary. Renton had to agree, and they set off.

The hangar was empty when they reached it. This surprised Renton, because for some reason he was expecting to see Eureka hanging out near the Nirvash, like she usually did whenever they were on the Gekko-Go.

"Something wrong?" asked Tyler, seeing the surprised and confused expression on Renton's face.

"No, nothing you have to worry about." said Renton with a small smile.

Tyler returned Renton's smile, and this, coupled with a quick glance at Tyler's seemingly glowing purple eyes, reminded him of what Holland had said earlier, during his little brawl with Tyler. In his rage he had blurted out, 'I'm fucking sick of you and you're damned fake smiles!', _I wonder,_ "Are you're smiles really fake

Like Holland said? Do you actually feel happiness at all?" asked Renton,

"'Happiness'?" said Tyler, "No, I haven't felt much of anything for a very long time now." he stated, matter-of-factly, "As for my smiles, aren't all smiles false?" _So it was true. _thought Renton,

"No, they aren't. I don't really understand this too well either, at least from you're point of view, but if you really want to feel emotions, to learn them, you've got to find the person that can truly make you smile, at least that's what I learned from Norbu." He replied,

"Norbu?" asked Tyler,

"Never mind." And with that Renton climbed into the cockpit of the Nirvash, and Tyler climbed into the other seat.

"What's that for?" asked Renton, spotting a blue and black ref board which Tyler had brought into the Nirvash.

"Hmm? What?" said Tyler, confused.

"That board, why are you bringing that?" repeated Renton.

"Oh," here he paused for a moment in thought, "You'll see when the ambush begins, I dislike explaining things like this." stated Tyler.

Renton shrugged and requested permission to take off, which was granted, and the catapult was opened. "Here we go." He said, and they launched out into the sky.


	8. Love & Hate

Chapter Eight: Love & Hate

"M, M, Moondoggie! You REALLY don't know that?" spat a stunned Gidget.

"Well, no, I didn't think it was such a big deal."

"Not a big deal? Moondoggie, how can you have a girlfriend and an extensive collection of pornography and not know where babies come from?"

"I, I, Hey, who's that?"

"Don't try to change the subject!"

"No, really, who's that?" said Moondoggie, pointing towards the form of a small person on the ground, some ways down the hallway.

Gidget looked at is finger, and then at where it was pointing, "Eureka? Is that you?"

there was no reply, so she started jogging towards the figure, Moondoggie following closely behind her. There was no mistaking the form for Eureka now, as it had her distinguishing blue hair and her beautiful pink wings. "Eureka! Are you alright?" asked Gidget, leaning over Eureka's body, she shook her gently.

Eureka stirred slightly but didn't wake up. "Eureka, Wake up!" yelled Gidget, and shook her a little harder.

Eureka finally opened her eyes and turned her head towards Gidget. "What happened to you?" asked Gidget, "If there's one thing I know about you it's that you're not the type to sleep in a hallway." She added in her usual matter-of-fact tone.

It took Eureka a moment to process this question and another moment to process the answer. _I don't know. _she thought and repeated this out loud.

"Whadda you mean you don't know?" asked Gidget, puckering her lips.

"I don't remember." replied Eureka.

"Oh well," sighed Gidget, standing up and shrugging, "It doesent matter. C'mon, Eureka, you haven't eaten breakfast yet have you?"

Eureka shook her head, and Gidget helped her to her feet, and they walked off together towards the living room.

"H, Hey! Wait for me!" cried Moondoggie, running after them.

Meanwhile in the infirmary, Dominic prepared to tell his story, again. "Anemone, does it really entertain you that much hearing about my injuries?" he sighed.

"Yup!" she replied, with a grin that nearly crossed her entire face.

"You really are an evil one aren't you?" he said, smiling himself,

"Yup!" she repeated, her grin widening even further.

"Haven't the injuries been torture enough without explaining them over and over?"

"Nope!" she replied, pulling a Gidget and puckering her lips while holding her hand out in front of her face with the index finger extended.

Dominic gave up, sighed, and explained the events of his shooting for the eighth time. _I know you're pain. _thought Mischa, who had been watching the two. She sighed herself, and returned to her work.

"Here we are!" said Gidget, excitedly as the door closed with a swish behind them. "You must be starving, you're food's probably cold by now, want me to heat it up for you?"

"No thank you," replied Eureka, "I can do that myself."

"Alright," said Gidget, turning towards Moondoggie and poking him in the chest, "Girl talk time, you stay outside."

"Uh, okay." he replied, and stepped outside.

Once the door had closed behind him, Gidget turned to Eureka, "Sorry about that," she said, shrugging and scratching the back of her head, "Some people just don't get it. Hey Eureka? You alright? You're phasing out."

Eureka blinked a few times then looked at Gidget. "Oh, sorry." she said, hesitantly.

"No problem," smiled Gidget, then she lowered her voice and said, "Hey, I wanted to ask you a few questions. You know, about the year you've been gone. I know were not supposed to ask, but. Well, you know."

"Its' alright." Replied Eureka, "I don't mind."

"Thanks." sighed Gidget, "For some reason I had the feeling that you would say no."

"Anyway, my first question is," here she lowered voice considerably and spoke into Eureka's ear, "How's it going between you and Renton now? I mean, you've bee together for almost two years now."

_Renton? Where is Renton? Oh, I remember, Holland sent him out on a mission. _"Something wrong? You're phasing out again."

"No, sorry."

"That's alright, I've had days like that before."

"Gidget, I want to ask you something first."

"Hmm? Sure."

"What was Renton's mission?"

"Oh, Renton was sent to ambush a Military convoy carrying some valuable material. I hear its only protected by twelve KLFs. Ten type 10's and two type 20s."

Eureka blinked, surprised, "Holland sent the Nirvash when he knows that it's one of the military's goals?" she asked. _Why? Why would Holland do something like that when he barely even trusts Renton with re-supplying the cabinets?_

"We'll, I'm sure Renton can handle something as small as that. Besides, if something happens he's not alone. Tyler went with him, and that kid knows his stuff."

Eureka's eyes widened when Gidget mentioned the name 'Tyler'. _Tyler, I remember, I remember why I was asleep in the hallway, It was Tyler, he's the same as… _"Holland!" she gasped, "Holland!"

"Huh?" asked Gidget, stupidly.

"Gidget, where's Holland?"

"I don't know, but he's probably either in his room or at the bridge."

As soon as Gidget answered, Eureka ran out of the room, barely dodging past Moondoggie, who had been leaning his ear against the door, leaving a shocked Gidget sitting alone on the couch.

"Isn't he cute?" asked Talho, leaning over a small crib in a room decorated with small, light-hearted baby toys.

"Yeah, he is isn't he?" replied Holland.

"Ugh! You're so boring!" exclaimed Talho jokingly as she took a running start and leapt onto her bed.

"Am I now?" asked Holland in an amused sort of tone as he got up and walked towards the bed himself. "We'll I guess I'll just have to change you're mind then."

"Holland." said Talho softly as Holland put an arm on each side of her, and they kissed.

swoosh

Holland quickly parted with Talho and sat up as he heard the door to his room open. "Holland!" came the voice of Eureka, "Um, I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?"

"No, nothing at all!" replied Holland, scratching the back of his head, "What do you need, Eureka?"

Eureka hesitated, "Tyler," she said after a moment, "Who is he? What is he?"


	9. Ambush at the Gil

Chapter Nine: Ambush at the Gil

Holland hesitated, and Eureka half expected him not to tell her. After a few seconds he got up and walked over to the couch, and sat down in his favorite position, arms over the back and eyes towards the ceiling. "I don't like talking about him." He thought aloud, "He really pisses me off."

"Should I tell her?" asked Talho,

"No, I should," sighed Holland, "I'm the leader. With power comes responsibility, and this just happens to be one of my responsibilities."

Talho nodded but said nothing, _Ugh, where to begin. _thought Holland, taking a hand and running it through his gray hair. "There's way too much to explain in just a day, so I'll keep this as basic as possible." He said, looking back down towards Eureka, and beckoning for her to take a seat next to him on the couch. "You might want to take a seat; even just the basics may take awhile."

Eureka did as he recommended, and he began to speak.

"They're late." commented Tyler, "Maybe we should take this time to go over the plan one more time."

"What's with you? It's like you don't trust me at all." Grunted Renton.

"I don't."

"Eh?"

"I don't trust you."

"Well why not?"

"I've never fully trusted anyone other than myself and, never mind."

Renton blinked, _That's almost exactly what Eureka said when we first met. She said that the only people she could ever trust were herself, the Nirvash and Holland. _he thought. He was growing more and more curious about him every time Tyler said something, but he decided not to press the subject. "What's that?" asked Renton as he spotted something in the distance, approaching rapidly.

"Its them." replied Tyler with a peculiar expression on his face. "I was starting to think they wouldn't come."

_Wait for it… Wait for it... NOW! _A crazed smile set on Tyler's face, and he grabbed the board he had brought, opened the cockpit.

"W, What are you doing! Are you crazy?" exclaimed Renton, but Tyler simply said, "Remember, I'll take the KLFs, you take the carriers." And jumped out, throwing the board under his feet just in time to avoid hitting the ground, and flying low in between the hills, followed by a trail of green and white spark-like particles. "Damn it." spat Renton, as he flew away a different direction.

Tyler looked all around as he dodged through trees and hills to avoid detection. _There._ He thought, and he zoomed upward out of the trees and over the hills, catching a strong wave of trapar and emerging next to one of the military's type20 class KLFs. The KLF paused for a moment, surprised and not knowing whether the boarder was attacking them, or just passing through.

Tyler took full advantage of this, he quickly closed in on the KLF and pressed his middle and index fingers against the metal, just like he had to Holland during their little brawl, only this time the metal began to seemingly 'dissolve' from the point where Tyler had touched it, and within ten seconds it and it's pilot were completely gone.

The radio channel went wild as the KLFs disappeared, and confused shots were fired. _Took them long enough. _thought Tyler as he swerved in all directions to avoid enemy gun fire. In the confusion, the KLFs broke ranks, leaving the opposite flank completely uncovered. Renton noticed this opportunity, and maneuvered through this opening and to the closest military carrier, grabbing onto it's left wing and tearing out the motor. He quickly sped out of the vicinity and on to the next jet as the carrier tilted sideways and plummeted towards the ground, and some of the KLFs that had previously been focused on Tyler turned their backs on him and began firing on the Nirvash.

Tyler took this opportunity to fly up and touch a few in the backs, disintegrating them on contact. He pulled off a few quick turns and attempted to take out another KLF, but was dodged and barely avoided a bullet the size of himself. _They're better than I remember._ he thought, and he grinned, _This should be fun._

By this time the military convoy was in complete chaos, it had lost two of the five carriers and five of the twelve KLFs. "Unit 06 is down! Unit 02 is down, we're not going to last much longer, sir! Carrier ship 'Warrior Maiden' is down!" yelled a short man wearing an air force uniform and a small mustache.

"Status report!" yelled another man in an air force uniform.

"Two carrier units and five, make that four type10 KLFs remain!" replied the short mustached man.

"Send a transmission to general Schwartz, tell him we were attacked, and the shipment most likely wont be arriving."

The short man looked down for a moment, then looked up again, "Yes sir." He said.

He messed with his keyboard for a few seconds, then a window came up on a monitor that sat in front of him, in the window was a man's face.

The man had almost no extremely distinguishing features. He had no mustache or beard, his eyes were a light blue, his hair was short and jet black. "General Schwartz, what is it?"

"General, this is supply convoy 008, we're under attack from the typeZero and an unidentified second, the supplies probably wont make it to Unicorn."

"Understood, what are you're coordinates?"

"Approximately twenty seven miles directly west of point A3B2, in the Gil."

"Alright, do what you see fit for you're current circumstances. If possible, attempt to capture the typeZero."

"Understood."

"Good, but if the attempt proves hopeless, just retreat. Do not throw you're lives away unnecessarily."

"Understood, sir." said the short man, "Ending transmission."

With that, the window disappeared off the screen. "This is troublesome." said the general, "We will have to find a different route to Unicorn."

"But some good did come of it." said a man standing at attention next to the general. The man had slick blonde hair, slightly longer than the general's, partially covered by a triangular black hat on which was stuck a polished golden metal. He wore a white and light blue military dress uniform, white gloves and black dress shoes. "We did confirm the reports of our agent on the current location of our primary objective."

"That's true." said the general, smiling and getting up from an armchair he'd previously been seated in. "That's why you're my advisor."

"Thank you general!" said the man, snapping his heels together and saluting.

"At ease, Ethan." Said the general, returning the man's salute, "And, call me Davon."


	10. Back Aboard

Chapter Ten: Back Aboard

_We're here._ thought Renton as he stood in the large hangar of the Gekko-Go. He looked back at Tyler, who had his arm extended and was touching the side of the Nirvash, just like Eureka used to. Tyler suddenly gasped in surprise then quickly withdrew his hand and leapt back "What's wrong?" asked Renton, "What happened?"

"It's," started Tyler, but then seemed to change his mind, "nothing." he finished, lamely.

Renton groaned silently, _Why is everyone always like that when it comes to me?_ he asked himself.

Renton blinked as he heard the door open at the other end of the hangar and looked in that direction. Holland stood in the doorway wearing only his undergarments, "I assume everything went as planned?" he asked lazily,

"Yeah." replied Renton in a matching tone. "Hey Holland, I don't suppose you've seen Eureka around today? I haven't seen her since before breakfast."

"Yeah, she said she was heading back to her room." answered Holland, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder and out of the hangar. "But I think Stoner wants an interview or something."

"Oh yea, I forgot."

"And when you see him, tell him to stop taking pictures of me while I'm sleeping." sighed Holland as he jammed his hands into the pockets of his boxers and walked out of the hanger, leaving the door open behind him.

"I guess I'll see you later." said Renton, turning to Tyler, but Tyler wasn't there. Renton put a hand to his head, _Whatever. _he thought, and walked to the door.

He took one last look over his shoulder at the Nirvash, then left the hanger and headed for Eureka's room.

_Good, _thought Tyler as he peered around Matthieu's Terminus606. He confirmed that he was alone, then pulled a personal communicator out of his pocket and switched it on. _Frequency 962, password sheepdog, encryption number 5032187. _he thought as he followed his own instructions. "This is Tyler." He whispered into the communicator.

"Tyler, report." Replied a deep male voice,

"The Nirvash knows. If it spoke with Eureka then chances of success would be low."

"Understood, skip to the final phase and carry it out as soon as possible. Do not allow Eureka to speak with the Nirvash."

"Understood."

Tyler turned off the personal communicator, then got up and walked out of the hangar.

"Eureka? Are you in there?" asked Renton as he knocked on the door of Eureka's room.

The door opened and Eureka stood on the other side, she nodded and grabbed Renton's hand, pulling him into the room. "Come on." She said smiling.

"Hey, wait!" exclaimed Renton in surprise as Eureka sat him down on her bed then sat down next to him, "What are you, oh the interview!" Renton realized as he spotted stoner on the bed opposite the one they sat in with his camera at the ready.

"Ah, you're here, we were waiting for you." said Stoner, lowering his camera, "You ready for that interview?"

"Yea I guess so," replied Renton, scratching his head, "But like I said, I think you'll be disappointed. Not much has happened."

"That's alright. It wouldn't matter if you'd been sleeping all this time, the people should still be told that you're safe, and once they learn you're safe they'll want to know where you've been. It's my job to record the events of the various members of Gekko-State, no matter how small or unimportant."

Renton blushed at this and looked down awkwardly, "Well, you see, we kind of were asleep."

"Eh?" said Stoner, surprised. He recovered quickly however, "Like I said, it doesent matter. I want to hear all about it." he said with a smile.

"Ok." said Eureka, catching Renton's eye and smiling,

"Alright, fine, fine!" said Renton playfully, and the two recalled the previous events and painstakingly put them into words, with Stoner endlessly clicking away with his camera and asking for more specific explanation about various events. He asked them curtly to retell the story about eight times.

About two hours later a very happy Stoner finally left Eureka and Renton to peace. He had left to go ask Dominic 'a few questions'. They both laid down the moment he had left, exhausted, and were content to simply stay in the room with each other the remainder of the day, leaving only for dinner.


	11. Close Call? The Midnight Evasion

Chapter Eleven: Close Call? The Midnight Evasion

Eureka was woken up the next day by a pain in her right wing, which was crumpled in an awkward direction, she had a great appetite as well. She looked around the room and saw that Renton had fallen asleep in the lower bed on the other side of the room. She walked to him and reached towards his wrist, intending to shake it gently and wake him up. However when she reached for his wrist she spotted a watch, the time was 12:02 in the morning, and she decided not to wake him up. She would have gone back to sleep had she not been so hungry, but she decided to take a stroll out to the kitchen.

She walked out of her room into the pitch black hallway and fumbled around for the switch, after a few seconds she found it and turned pushed it up. The light was blinding, and she gasped then covered her eyes, but they quickly adjusted to the light and she continued down the hallway, turning on the necessary lights to reach the kitchen.

A few hallways down in the opposite direction, Tyler had snuck out of bed and pulled a pair of night vision goggles out of his pack, and was now moving silently closer to Eureka's room. As he reached the final turn he was temporarily blinded by the lights Eureka had left on, on her way to the kitchen. _Agh! What the hell! _he thought as he quickly looked down and covered his eyes, his vision was blurred by fuzzy multi-colored spots. He tore off his night vision goggles and continued to the door of Eureka's room.

The door swished open, and he moved in silently only to see that Renton was alone in the room and there was no Eureka in sight. _Damn it, she must have went out, that would explain the lights… Wait, if I can follow the trail of lights that would lead me to her… No, I've got to stick to the plan, I'll try again tomorrow, there's plenty of time, I've just got to keep her away from the Nirvash until then… Wait! The Nirvash, what if she went to see the Nirvash! _At this realization, Tyler dashed out of the room and sprinted through the hallways towards the Nirvash.

When Eureka was done eating, (two pre-broiled eggs and some lettuce) she retreated back towards her room, winding through hallways and switching off lights on the way. After a few minutes she reached her destination, and she wasted no time in opening the door, walking to the bed, and lying down. But she had a bad feeling, an ominous feeling, she felt as though she was being watched. She did her best to shake off these feelings but could never do it completely. She eventually fell into an uneasy sleep, but strange and hellish nightmares haunted her for six hours, until she awoke once again to the small figure of Renton shaking her softly and saying: "Hey Eureka, it's 6:36, we should go get some breakfast.

She looked at Renton and nodded, "Mm hmm"

She got up and subconsciously followed Renton to the living room, but her mind was set on something else entirely. _Who was that, in my dream? It was someone I knew, a boy, someone I didn't know very well, but, even though he said nothing, understood perfectly. _But it was no good, the harder she tried to remember the dream, the more quickly it spilled from her mind. Suddenly she noticed she had stopped, "Eureka, daydreaming?" teased Renton,

Eureka blinked a few times, "Yes, sorry."

"No, its no problem," chuckled Renton, "Where were we going again? Oh yea, the living room."

And with that they continued to the living room without event.

In the hangar, Tyler leaned against the 606, watching the Nirvash and the door. _So she didn't come. _he thought, resting his eyes.


	12. ‘Have you ever felt it?’

Chapter Twelve: 'Have you ever felt it?'

"About time," scolded Talho, as the entire party of varied people with varied expressions shifted their gazes towards the two teens who had just entered the room. "Where were you? Holland's made some of us wait for over an hour! Going on about how 'we should be debriefed as a team'."

Renton could tell who those people were by the expressions on their faces, a few looked feet from dead. "I'm sorry, we're the last ones here?" he asked, choosing his words carefully, as to avoid a sharp slap from Talho. Waiting longer than ten minutes usually upset her, and she usually took it out on one of the crew. Renton didn't want to be that one.

"No, Tyler isn't here, it wouldn't be surprising if he didn't show up at all, he normally doesn't." answered Talho sharply. "In fact, someone should probably go look for him. You're the closest, you go." She pointed a finger at Renton in an accusation sort of way. "But if you're gone longer than fifteen minutes there'll be hell to pay!"

_What's with her? She's acting like she did in my first few weeks aboard the Gekko,_ thought Renton, but he knew better than to quarrel with Talho when she was like this, "Fine, fine, I've got nothing better to do." He sighed, putting a hand to his head and turning around, "Go ahead and eat, Eureka, I'll be right back."

she nodded. _Here I go._

Ten minutes later, he arrived at the door to the hangar. _This place needs a serious makeover,_ he commented silently as he noticed that the corners of the door had rusted over and a small puddle of an unknown substance sat under it. He turned the worn out door knob and walked into the hangar. "There you are," he said, spotting Tyler leaning against Matthieu's terminus, staring at the Nirvash.

"Hmm?" he responded, turning his neck to face him.

"Holland wants everyone in the living room," said Renton, "I'm supposed to bring you there."

There was silence for a few moments as Tyler examined Renton, who for some reason began to feel a bit nervous. "Why," asked Tyler, ignoring Renton's previous statement, "did you take it easy on the military convoy yesterday?"

Renton blinked, "The Nirvash is more than powerful enough to destroy that force completely more quickly than you destroyed only the carriers." continued Tyler.

Renton sighed silently, "You probably won't understand this anyway, but," he paused and looked up, resting his eyes in thought for a moment, then looked back down towards Tyler, "do you know what 'love' is?"

_What am I asking? Of course he doesent,_ thought Renton, scolding himself for asking such an idiotic question, but to his surprise, Tyler averted his gaze, looking back towards the Nirvash, then averting it again towards the floor below the Nirvash, "Yes." He replied, simply.

"W, What?" asked Renton, surprised, "You just said 'Yes'?"

"Yes." repeated Tyler, looking back towards Renton, "Why?"

Renton was taken by surprise, but recovered after a moment, "Have you ever felt it?"

"Yes."

"Well, Well then this will be a lot easier." Renton told himself, "Who?"

"That's none of you're concern." replied Tyler, his eyes thinning slightly, but visibly. "Please answer my question."

"Alright, alright." answered Renton, keeping a safe distance from Tyler. "Have you ever stopped and thought that every one of those KLFs and carriers have living people in them? People just like me, and most of those people have loved ones too. Those people's loved ones would feel the same way loosing them, as I would loosing Eureka, or you loosing you're loved one." _That was… embarrassing… _thought Renton as he found himself blushing madly, he averted his face from Tyler so as to hide this.

Tyler was, however, too caught up in thought to notice something like Renton blushing. He sat there, face towards the ceiling, thinking silently. _Is that true? Is that what I've been doing to people… this whole time?.. Why, why didn't anyone stop me? But there's no way, no possible way that they could feel, the same way as I did..._ "That's, not possible." he said aloud, opening his eyes and looking back at Renton, "It's not possible, they cant feel like I did. It's… it's NOT POSSIBLE!" he continued, raising his voice slowly into a yell, his eyes wide and fists clenched at his sides, but he quickly got a grip on himself.

"I'm, sorr-" he stopped and coughed a few times into his hand, "sorry." he continued, his eyes still averted from Renton, "I'll be going now."

"What? Where?" asked Renton,

"To the living room." Replied Tyler, walking past Renton and out of the hangar.

_What, what just happened?_ thought Renton, watching Tyler out of the corner of his eye. He blinked, and suddenly remembered, _The time!_ He thought, looking down at his watch, it had been sixteen minutes, and it would take two more to get to the living room. "Crap!" shouted Renton, running after Tyler, "Hurry!"

"Why?" asked Tyler, unsure.

"We're late!"

"Fine, fine." And with this the two ran through the numerous hallways an their way to the living room.


	13. Homeward Bound

Chapter Thirteen: Homeward Bound

"You're late… again." said Talho as Renton entered the living room once again, bent over with his hands on his knees, panting.

"Would someone mind giving me the lecture I was interrupted for?" shot an annoyed voice as Tyler slipped past Renton into the room, and leaned against the wall seeing that the couch was full. It only frustrated him more when their gazes shifted away from him as they gave each other confused glances, "Well?"

"Holland isn't here, he went out to-"

"Back." called Holland from outside the room before Talho could finish.

_Hypocrite_ thought Tyler as Renton took a seat on the floor next to Eureka and held her hand.

Eureka began to lean on Renton, "Renton, Eureka, this is mainly directed towards you, so pay attention." came Holland's voice before the two could get to cuddly. "We're headed back to Bellforest."

There was a long, lame silence, it was finally interrupted by Talho when she let fly what was on all of their minds, "What? Is that all?" she exclaimed "You had us wait over an hour for that? You announced that on the bridge, remember?"

"Um, oh, yea sorry about that." Replied Holland, scratching the back of his head,

"Idiot!" yelled Talho, flinging her hands in the air as she exited the room, Tyler close behind her.

After a moment the rest of the crew hurried out before Holland could change his mind. "I'm missing that old happy squeal of yours, Renton." teased Holland,

"I would normally be excited but, we should have been on our way there two days ago." replied Renton, countering Holland quite effectively.

_He's grown_ thought Holland as Renton followed Eureka out of the room, still holding hands. _They've both grown._

"Where are we going?" asked Renton as Eureka pulled him through the hallways, though he thought he already knew.

"To the Nirvash," replied Eureka, looking back into Renton's eyes. "I haven't seen her since we boarded the Gekko-Go."

_Thought so_ thought Renton as they turned the last bend to the hangar. Eureka flinched and bit her lip to stop herself from squealing as she saw Tyler sitting against the door to the hangar, his gaze directed at her. "Eureka, I thought you would probably come this way."

Eureka backed up a step as Tyler stood up. "Something wrong?" asked Tyler,

"No." replied Eureka, her voice trembling, trying to compose herself, but vibes speak louder than words, and she was giving off all the wrong vibes.

"Eureka, are you alright?" asked Renton, watching her with concern,

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Anyway," said Tyler, ignoring Eureka's strange behavior, "I can't let you into the hangar today."

"Huh?" grunted Renton, confused, "Why not?"

"And I can't tell you why not." continued Tyler,

"Holland's orders?"

"I cant tell you that either." replied Tyler, amused by Renton's confusion and annoyance. "I really cant tell you anything other than you cant go in right now."

"Can you go in?" asked Eureka, now composed and acting normal,

Tyler didn't seem caught off guard by this question, "Yea, but not alone. They don't trust me enough for that yet."

suspicion suddenly swelled inside Renton, "Why would you have higher clearance than us?" he asked, "We've been with Gekko-State almost twice as long as you, if not more." continued Eureka, also suspicious.

Tyler shrugged, "maybe it's something they don't want you to see." he responded simply.

It didn't seem likely, but Eureka and Renton had to admit to themselves that things like this had happened before, especially Renton. They eventually backed off the subject, "When you can, tell the Nirvash I said hi." said Eureka carefully.

"Sure." replied Tyler, casually saluting their departure and sitting back down against the door. _That was a little harder than I suspected it would be _thought Tyler with a sigh, _I think they're already suspicious of me._

"Eureka," said Renton as soon as they were out of earshot from Tyler, "We should go to you're room, there's something I want to ask you."

Eureka looked at Renton and nodded, it seemed like she was expecting him to say that, like she wanted him to say that. The two continued through the hallways towards Eureka's room, hand in hand as was now natural for them.

**NOTE: You don't even need to be registered to this site to submit reviews for my stories, so please review.**


	14. Time Alone

Chapter Fourteen: Time Alone

After an uncomfortable two and a half minutes, the door of Eureka's room swished open and she entered, followed by Renton. They sat down on the lower of the bunks on the left from the door, hands still locked together. Eureka's wings cast a soft, fragrant glow about the already well lit room. Renton was taken by this scene, and it brightened his mood a bit, just a bit, just enough for him to ask Eureka the question he meant to ask her without his voice shaking.

"Eureka," said Renton, playing with his clothes,

"Hmm?"

"During the mission, the ambush." said Renton, searching for the right words, "Tyler went off alone on a Ref board, he just touched the KLFs and they would sort of, dissolve. Do you know why?"

"Yes," she replied, her eyes thinning slightly,

"You, really?" asked Renton, caught off guard by her answer,

"Yes," she repeated, "I heard from Holland while you were out."

The soft glow stirred as Eureka shifted herself into a more comfortable position, "Theories point to it being a common trait among male Coralians." she said, and began to shake her head slowly, "I don't understand it well."

"I see, I should ask Holland then." said Renton. Spotting an opportunity and standing up, "but in the meantime,"

Eureka watched curiously as Renton made his way towards the door, but didn't leave. He instead reached out and switched off the lights, but the room barely darkened and they could now see the beautiful green glow on all the surfaces in the room, save a few which were veiled by shadow. Eureka inhaled sharply, "Renton!" she gasped happily, but she couldn't find the right words to portray it and simply finished: "It's pretty!"

"Yeah," replied Renton. He stared at Eureka for a moment, then let fly, "but not nearly as pretty as you."

Eureka sat still for a moment blushing, then leapt up and threw herself into Renton's arms, who staggered back a few steps, "Renton!" she exclaimed, 'I, I love you!"

_Me too, I mean, who wouldn't love me?_ joked Renton silently, "I loved you first." said Renton, smiling,

Eureka returned his smile, and they kissed.

"It's almost eleven," yawned Holland from his seat above and behind three lower seats, two of which were empty and the third occupied by Talho.

The bridge was the second most well-kept rooms on the Gekko-Go, surpassed by only the living room/lounge.

"Moondoggie's got lunch today right?" asked Talho

"Yea, but maybe someone should ask Eureka and Renton, they always seemed to enjoy cooking." replied Holland, rubbing his left eye, "Besides they're much better at it than doggie. In fact I don't remember having constant good meals since they were here last year."

"That's up to you," said Talho, turning in her chair to look at Holland, "you're the leader."

They both sat there staring at each other for a good ten seconds, then Holland sighed, "Fine, fine." he said, standing up, "I could use the exercise anyway." He muttered as he trudged up the staircase.

He stopped half way up, "Hey, I don't suppose you would know where they are?" he called down,

"Take a guess," replied Talho, "probably by the Nirvash, in the living room, or in one of their rooms."

"Yeah thanks, that narrows it way down." grunted Holland sarcastically as he continued up the stairs and out of the bridge.

A minute later Holland arrived at the hangar door to see Tyler still sitting against it with his eyes closed, "Just what the hell are you doing?" asked Holland slowly,

"Nothing important." replied Tyler, opening his eyes and standing up and sidestepping out of Holland's way.

"Whatever." moaned Holland, too tired to push the question, as he walked past Tyler, opened the door and peered inside.

He withdrew seeing that there was no Renton or Eureka inside, and shut the door, setting off towards the living room and leaving Tyler to lean back up against the door and close his eyes again.

Before he knew it Holland was in the last hallway on his way to the living room, this was the main hallway, a few other hallways crossed it and many doors dotted it's sides. He continued walking through this hall towards the living room around half way down it, but as he passed the last crossing hallway before reaching the living room, he caught a glimpse of an oddly familiar form out of the corner of his eye, down the crossing hall to the left.

He blinked, _That was,_ "Gonzy?" he exclaimed, wheeling around and looking down the hall again, "How, didn't you,"

but there was no one there, _hallucinating now, I've really got to get more sleep_ he thought with a sigh, and turned back on his way towards the living room.

"Hey, leader!" cried Matthieu and Hap simultaneously from the couch as the living room door slid open and Holland strode in.

The room smelled of what Holland suspected to be Moondoggie's burnt cooking from the adjacent kitchen.

"Doggie, I think it's burning." he said into the room, a faint "Oh… Crap!" could be heard from the kitchen, followed by some scrambling then something metal hitting the floor with a clang.

"What's up?" asked Hap like nothing had happened, seeing the leader's exasperated and confused expression,

"Looks like somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, eh?" joked Matthieu, also noticing Holland's expression,

"Shut up," said Holland lamely, running his hand down his face, "Anyone know where Eureka and Renton are?"

"Neh." said Hap, "But knowing them their most likely by the Nirvash or visiting that kid in the hospital, Dominic was it?"

Holland closed the door and strode off again, this time in the direction of Eureka's room. The room wasn't far from the lounge, and he reached it quickly and without event and slid the door open.

This room was by far the most interesting one he had visited on his little 'journey' to find Eureka and Renton. The first thing he noticed was that Eureka and Renton were there, then the soft green glow that covered most of the surfaces in the room, he wondered what it was for a moment, then realized they originated from Eureka's wings, which stood out among all.

_That's an eye opener,_ he thought, then he shifted his gaze towards Eureka and Renton, and noticed they were in the midst of a kiss, Holland had apparently caught them of guard because Eureka had froze and Renton stared at him.

"Sorry, was I interrupting something?" asked Holland, stifling a laugh,

Renton and Eureka quickly jumped apart, Eureka turned towards Holland, blushing, and Renton jumped back and pointed at Holland, "Do you mind?" he exclaimed, his face reddening.

"Sorry," said Holland through gritted teeth, trying his best to stifle his laughs, when he had calmed down a moment later he continued, "Would you be interested in cooking dinner? You've always seemed to enjoy it. I would offer you lunch but, heh, it seems as though Doggie's already made it."

There was silence for a moment, although it seemed like a minute, before Eureka broke it, "Yes, I'd like that." she said with a smile,

"Alright," said Holland, backing out of the room slowly, "I'll just, leave you to it then. See you." he shut the door and cut off the light which was previously streaming through from the hallway, and the room glowed green once again.


	15. In the Improper Hospital

Chapter Fifteen: In the Improper Hospital

Dominic stirred and opened his eyes. He had been woken by a ruckus outside the infirmary door, it sounded as though something metal had been dropped. A few seconds later he was sure of it, he could clearly hear metal sliding on metal, probably a metal tray judging by his guess at the weight of the object.

A moment later the infirmary door could be heard swishing open, followed by the clip clop of shoes on tile, "Shush," came Mischa's voice, "he's sleeping."

"Oops," replied an unmistakable whisper, he had heard that voice every day nearly all day since his shooting.

"Neh, it's alright. I'm awake." he said reluctantly.

Almost instantaneously the pink-haired, purple-eyed girl poked her head around the curtain, she was giving him the same smile she used to give Dewey. The memory sickened him, but he couldn't help but chuckle weakly at her peculiar expression and innocence, although he knew she was anything but innocent.

"I brought dinner." she said, stepping around the curtain and holding the metal tray that, presumably, had woken Dominic up. On it was a bowl of beef ramen and a plastic cup containing tea, "I dropped it on the way out but the ramen only spilled a bit and I was holding the tea in my other hand at the time, so it's fine."

"Thanks," replied Dominic as Anemone placed the tray on his lap,

"Eureka and Renton made it, it's really good." she said, straightening, "I'll leave you to eat then." She said, waving as she disappeared behind the curtain.

As she disappeared, a maroon object in her hand caught his eye, it resembled a dead flower.

"I'll be seeing you again soon I'm guessing." He heard Mischa say,

"Yup, I'll probably be back in, maybe an hour." Replied Anemone, "By the way, have you seen Gulliver anywhere? He's not in his bed and I can't seem to find him- ah! ouch!"

Dominic's natural reaction was to quickly sit up, spilling the tea off his plate, and look around the curtain in a panic.

"Gulliver! Where have you been?" laughed Anemone, "You scared me!"

Anemone was leaning against the wall for support, Gulliver clinging onto her left shoulder with his two front legs. Anemone straightened and picked him up off her shoulder, taking him into her arms.

"How do you do that?" asked Dominic, scratching his forehead, "He's so heavy…"

Anemone laughed, "No, you're just so weak." she said, smiling.

"I'm not!" exclaimed Dominic, blushing, "Ask anybody, he's REALLY heavy!"

Anemone skipped towards him, back around the curtain, and held Gulliver out over his chest.

"W, Wait! Don't do tha-!" the rest of the air built up in his lungs came out in a cough as Anemone dropped Gulliver onto him.

Anemone laughed hysterically watching him struggle to get Gulliver, who seemed quite content, off. "Look! You're arms are so scrawny! You've got to get some leverage! You can do it!"

"Can't… breathe… get it off!" Dominic gasped, still pulling and shoving at Gulliver.

Anemone gave one last laugh, the calmed down slowly and pulled Gulliver off and back into her arms,

Both breathed heavily, Anemone from laughter and Dominic from lack of oxygen, but before either caught their breath Anemone leaned forward on her toes and kissed Dominic, who blinked surprised, he suddenly felt like he was flying, it was the same feeling he had gotten a year ago when he had shared his first real kiss with her. He had kissed her once before then, but it had been a one sided kiss, and he had stumbled out of it with a small chunk out of his lower lip missing and blood on his military dress uniform.

"Mm!" exclaimed Anemone, parting with him and falling back onto her heels, "You're yummy!"

His lips formed the word 'Wha?' but he was able to restrain himself. Anemone spun on her heels and started towards the door, "Bye bye!" she said, waving with one hand and holding Gulliver with the other as she passed around the curtain and out of sight, "I'm really going to let you eat this time!"

And with this she left the room, leaving a happy, confused and strangely excited Dominic.

Thirty minutes later the ramen was gone, and Dominic stared into the empty bowl, _You were right, Anemone, it was good,_ he thought, before his train of thought changed suddenly and unexpectedly, _Anemone, what would I ever do if I lost you. What would be like to live on knowing I would never see you again…_

… _And what is that 'Gulliver' thing, anyway?..._

Anemone wandered aimlessly through the hallways, _I should get back, Dominic's surely finished eating by now,_ she thought. As she turned around to face the infirmary, she spotted an unfamiliar hallway, _I don't remember seeing that hallway, I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before,_ she thought.

All the sudden a fierce curiosity tugged at her, _Aw, what the hell? What could go wrong?_ she thought as she skipped to the hall and looked around the corner, _Oh! I remember this place now!_ she thought, recognizing the bend in the hallway about ten paces ahead, _That's the way to the hangar._

"That reminds me," she said to herself, _I've only seen Eureka once since we boarded this ship, I haven't had a good talk with her in awhile, and she may have gotten the wrong impression of me when we headed here in the Nirvash. I, was… a little light headed then,_ she thought, frowning. She sighed and continued down the hallway to the hangar door, she shuttered at its condition, for a moment she hesitated to touch the rusted and stained knob, _God, I'm such an idiot,_ she thought, as she grabbed the handle and twisted it. The door swung back on unbalanced hinges with a high pitched squeal, Anemone shuddered, _I can't wait to get out of here, I've got to get out of here! Come on, Dominic, get better already!_ she took a deep breath then steadied herself and walked forward, stopping at the railing, "Eureka, are you there?" she called.

There was no response.

"Eureka?" she called again, advancing down the stairs, still no answer.

She sighed silently and was about to turn back, she called one last time, "Eureka?"

"Oh well," she thought aloud, turning and climbing back up the first two steps towards the door,

"Anemone-" replied an unfamiliar voice, Anemone blinked,

"Eureka? Is that you?"

"Anemone, get back to the infirmary,"

"Who-?"

"Run! Now!" exclaimed the voice, and she realized from where it originated,

"Nirvash?"

A searing pain erupted in her left temple and she shrieked and fell to her knees. Clutching her pained head instinctively, she felt something warm, she massaged the area a bit, and realized it was a thick liquid. Her eyes widened and her pupils thinned as she quickly withdrew her hand and held it before her face, it was stained dark red.

Another pain erupted, this time in her right temple, and she fell to the floor and the world slowly faded before her.


	16. Reality

**Chapter 15 has been extended since it was first posted, so you should go back to chapter fifteen and make sure you read the extention to it before you read this chapter, or you'll be confused later on.**

Chapter Sixteen: Reality

"What the FUCK!" hollered Renton as he swung the door of his room open with such force it left a mark on the steel wall, "YOU UNDERSTAND HOW MACHINES FEEL, BUT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND MY FEELINGS! OR DO YOU JUST NOT CARE ABOUT ME, ABOUT HOW I FEEL!"

"Renton… I… I didn't mean it like that…" whimpered a shocked Eureka, so softly it could be mistaken for a whisper,

"I don't care anymore… just leave me alone…" replied Renton, turning his back on Eureka and slamming the door in her face.

Eureka stood rooted to the spot,_ Renton…_ she thought, and a single tear trickled down her cheek, _Renton…_ more tears followed, the door in front of her became blurry and out of focus, she could feel the tears dripping off her chin, but she didn't notice it.

She couldn't possibly notice things like that, when her chest hurt so badly. She had never felt a pain like this before, she had trouble breathing steadily.

But she knew what she had to do.

She strained to uproot her feet, and walked slowly towards the hangar, the well lit hallways blurred to the point where they were almost unrecognizable and the lights burning her eyes. She blinked and wiped her tears away, but they were replaced instantaneously.

She began to run.

She blinked, but when she opened her eyes again, she was no longer in the bright hallway, but in a dark room, lying down on a warm bed. She sat up and looked around, but it was too dark to see. _What… was that?_ she thought, breathing heavily as she felt something wet trickle down her face, she moved her hand to wipe it off and realized that her face was soaked with it,

_Sweat?_

Eureka looked around again, and found that her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the dark, she recognized the silhouette as that her own room, _It was… a dream?_

Something seemed wrong, the room was too dark, darker than she remembered. She blinked and tried to extend her wings for some light, but nothing happened. She looked back at where her wings should have been, but there was nothing.

She touched her forehead, but felt no smooth emerald stone. _I've never had a dream before… I'm becoming…_

_Human…_

Eureka jumped and hit her head on the upper bunk as she was woken from her thoughts by a presence next to her.

"Ouch," she whimpered, massaging her head, then turned her head to face the presence.

The silhouette of a young boy stood beside her bed, Eureka blinked. "Renton?" she said uncertainly,

her mouth hung slightly open as she strained to verify the boy's identity, after a few seconds she was all but sure it was him. "Renton! My wings are gone! I had a dream! I'm…" her sentence trailed off and she blinked again. Suddenly she wasn't so sure it was Renton after all, "Renton?"

Her eyes widened as she noticed the boy was holding a gun in one hand and a strangely shaped medical needle in the other. "Who are you?" she whimpered as she backed slowly against the wall.

The boy raised the gun, but did not point it at Eureka, instead he swung it down at her head like a club.

She screamed and raised her arms but it was a trick, the gun missed her head and her arms and swerved around to the undefended side of her neck, she tried to move her arm again but was too slow. She felt the object strike her and inhaled sharply.

While she was still stunned from this blow the silhouette dropped the gun and held her arms in place with one hand, and with the other stuck the large needle into her neck and injected the strange liquid.

Instantly it became extremely difficult to breathe, and her breath came in short, frequent busts, a searing pain erupted in her head and in her eyes, which she struggled to keep open, but her efforts were futile, and they closed, flinging her unconscious and banishing her back into the dark world of the nightmare she had just escaped from.


	17. The Waking Nightmare

Chapter Seventeen: The Waking Nightmare

Eureka now found herself inside the Nirvash, gripping the controls with one hand, and her chest with the other, _It doesent hurt… _she tried to convince herself, _It doesent HURT!_

"Nirvash!" she sobbed, "Renton…" her heart rate increased as she thought his name, and she broke down again. "Won't be… coming with us this time…" she finished with trouble when she had somewhat recovered a few seconds later,

"Please, Nirvash, dance for me!"

She knew it was hopeless, the Nirvash wouldn't move without him, _Without him…_ she thought, _Without Renton… I'm useless… just a burden,_

The Nirvash lurched, "Nirvash!" she exclaimed, her thoughts of Renton dissipating temporarily. She pulled the steering wheel, and the Nirvash responded, shifting into its humanoid form, "Nirvash… thank you…" she said, but as the initial shock faded, her thoughts slowly shifted back to Renton, and the pain in her chest, which had subsided just a little, struck again in full force. _I must protect them… I must protect him…_

The hatch opened and the catapult extended, "Where's Renton?" came Hap's voice from Nirvash's built-in radio,

"He's…" she struggled to continue, tears returning to her eyes, "Not coming." she finished

"Something wrong? You look terrible, Eureka."

Eureka attempted to compose herself to no effect, then shook her head,

"Alright, if you say so. You're clear for launch, Eureka. Hurry, looks like the others are in trouble!"

"Roger." she replied, stepping on one of the pedals on the floor, and the Nirvash sped forwards along the catapult.

In a few seconds the Nirvash was flung off the end of the catapult, and after a few seconds more, had flung the large Ref board under it's feet and was riding the trapar. Eureka looked down and instantly saw the Terminuses 606 and 808 lying on the ground, torn and broken, orange and blue scraps of metal littered their general vicinity. "Hilda! Matthieu!" cried Eureka into her headset, there was no response.

"Eureka, look out!" she heard a familiar voice exclaim, _Holland,_

she looked up away from the broken Terminuses and saw a model 505 speeding in her direction, its shoulder mounted heat cannon pointed straight at her cockpit. She pulled up into a cork spin just in time, the laser missed the cockpit, but scorched off the Nirvash's right arm,

"Nirvash!" she shrieked, "Hang in there, Nirvash!"

A second laser was fired, this time from Holland's 909, it burnt a whole clean through the 505, which stood for a moment suspended in air, then plunged towards the ground and exploded half way to the earth.

"Eureka! Are you alright?" questioned Holland through the radio, "That's the last of them, get back to the Gekko-Go, I'll take care of the 606 and-"

"Holland! Behind you!" yelled Eureka as an unfamiliar jet black LFO burst from the clouds behind the 909 and sped forth,

"Shit!" exclaimed Holland as he tugged on his controls, but he was too late.

The black LFO extended six blades, three from each arm, and swung the left three down on the 909, cutting it into four pieces, then the right three, this time across the middle of the 909, which exploded instantly.

Eureka's eyes widened, "H… H… HOLLAND!" she screeched. The tears flowing down her cheeks seemed heavy, they weighed her head down into her lap and she cried. _What am I doing!_ she scolded herself, _the black LFO!_ she quickly sat back up and grabbed the controls, but the black LFO had not paused and had now crossed most of the distance between the 909 and the Nirvash, there was no longer enough time to turn the Nirvash around.

Eureka raised the Nirvash's remaining arm, boomerang knife in hand, and swung down at the oncoming LFO. It was a desperate and miserable attempt as well as a futile one, the black LFO parried the blow with its right three blades, and impaled the Nirvash with the remaining ones.

"Eureka…" groaned Nirvash, "…why…?"

Eureka's eyes widened and she gasped, "NIRVASH!" she yelled, still holding the controls.

She raised the Nirvash's right hand to strike again, but a quick slash from the black LFO severed it, and it fell to the ground far below.

"Eureka… I trusted you…" whispered the Nirvash, it was crying.

"Nirvash! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" replied Eureka, crying as well,

"I moved for you… I moved without Renton…"

"Nirvash! Please forgive me! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

There was no response, Eureka released the controls and buried her face in her hands. There was nothing more she could do now.

"Eureka!" came a familiar voice from the black LFO,

Eureka looked up, tears still flowing from her eyes, "We've met before," called the voice

"Anemone?" whispered Eureka, recognizing the voice,

"I really like you! So…" a playful grin crossed Anemone's face, "…can I kill you?"

Eureka gasped and ducked as the black LFOs free arm swung past, shattering the cockpits metallic glass door. The pieces rained down on Eureka, leaving numerous large cuts all across her body. She looked down to inspect her wounds, and exhaled sharply. Her white and blue dress was stained red and black, her arms were raw and numb.

_Someone…_ she closed her eyes tightly, _…Someone help me… Someone…_

A sudden warmth spread across her body, and she opened her eyes. She felt a familiar presence by her side, _Renton!_ she turned and extended her hand to the co-pilot seat, but her hand made contact with the shattered remainder of the cockpit hatch. She raised her head and looked into the empty seat beside her.

There was no one there, she was alone.

Eureka froze in shock, her bloody hand still pressed against the glass. Slowly her expression changed, her eyes narrowed and tears flooded out harder than ever, she let her hand slide down the glass, leaving trails of dark blood in their wake.

The black LFO raised it's right arm high above its head, an unfamiliar voice entered Eureka's head,

_If it hurts to trust…_

The bladed arm of the black LFO hurtled downwards,

…_Than just stop trusting…_

Eureka let her arm fall limply from the glass, and the blades dug into the Nirvash's head and shoulders, followed by the arm itself, which crushed the Nirvash utterly, and sent Eureka plummeting down, along with the scattered remains of the white LFO, towards the earth.

Renton stared out the window in his room. He had been wrong when he told her this fight didn't involve him, though he didn't know it at the time. How could he have not realized it?

As long as this fight involved Eureka, as long as it involved her, it involved _him_.

_What's that?_ something had fallen onto the wing of the Gekko-Go, he squinted tightly trying to tell what it was. A sudden cold numbed his entire body, his eyes widened,_ Eureka?_

So it was, the ragged and bloodied corpse of Eureka lay sprawled limply on the wing of the Gekko-Go. Renton stared for five or ten seconds, then his stomach lurched, he bent over and threw up.

"EUREKA!" he yelled, sitting suddenly upright, and hitting his head on something hard.

He looked up at it, but it was too dark and he couldn't tell what it was. He realized he was sitting on something warm and soft, he reached down and felt a bed. _It was a dream?_ His breathing slowed back to its normal pace as he attempted to examine his surroundings to no avail, then got up and walked in the general direction of the door, groping around for the light switch. He looked around the room and noticed Eureka wasn't there, that was normal as she often left the room in the middle of the night to do on thing or another, but this time he had a bad feeling about it, it seemed as though his stomach had dropped out. He turned towards the door, pondering what action to take next.

_What could happen?_ He swung open the door of the room, and light flooded into the black corridor.


	18. A Broken Promise

Chapter Eighteen: A Broken Promise

Tyler opened the door quickly so it wouldn't squeal, and carried an unconscious Eureka into the hanger with ease, she was surprisingly light. He hopped down the stairs in a few bounds and jogged across the hanger towards the typeZero.

"I know, I know! Will you shut up already?" he shot quietly at the Nirvash as he climbed onto it's shoulder and laid Eureka carefully in the second pilot seat next to Anemone, also unconscious.

The Nirvash had been nagging at him at every opportunity, warning him what would happen if he followed through with this, but he already knew. He knew he was being used and he knew what would be done to him the minute he returned, but he also knew he had no other options.

At least Nirvash understood, even if only a little, it was nice to have someone who understood. Though perhaps it understood too well, perhaps it understood more than he did.

"Fine, if you won't shut up, I'll shut you up."

though he looked and sounded normal, he and the Nirvash both knew he was crying inside.

Tyler removed the compac and Amita drive from the Nirvash, and replaced it with his own compac drive, which he had pulled from one of his pockets. The Nirvash was silent, but it would take a few minutes for the virus to spread through it's systems, _I don't like to wait…_ thought Tyler, standing up and stretching his arms, then he heard a squeal and a bang as the metal door to the hanger was thrust open, and before he knew what was going on the room was filled with light. _Damn, _he ducked quickly hoping the intruder hadn't noticed him, but he had,

"Eureka? Is that you?" called Renton, his eyes thinned when he heard no reply, he knew there was someone there. "Who's there?" he called again, and this time a figure stood up in the cockpit of the Nirvash, "What? I told you you weren't allowed in the hanger." said Tyler "Whatever, what do you want?"

"Where's Eureka?"

"Eureka? Don't know, why?"

"Don't lie to me you bastard, I'm asking you where Eureka is!"

"How should I know?" replied Tyler, but he knew Renton was on to him, he must have made a mistake somewhere, where that was he didn't know, everything had seemed to go according to plan,

"You tell me." said Renton, "Eureka's not in her bed and there's a trail of blood from her room to the hanger that wasn't there this morning."

_Blood?_ thought Tyler, confused. He couldn't remember either Eureka or himself bleeding, unless it was from the needle but that would only bleed a bit, not enough for a trail.

"Yeah I'm a little messy, sorry about that," replied Tyler, buying himself time to think up a story, "I came over to you're room earlier tonight to ask Eureka something about the Nirvash, but you were already asleep so I decided to head back here. I cut myself on something on the way out of the room, I forgot what and to be honest I didn't realize it until just recently- but why am I telling you this?" he jumped down off the Nirvash as Renton advanced, Renton said nothing, but walked past him calmly,

Tyler seized his arm, "I wouldn't touch it if I were you." said Tyler in a last ditch effort to drive Renton off, but it was futile; "Let go." said Renton. Tyler sighed but did not let go of Renton's arm, instead he raised his hand and threw it at the back of Renton's head, but Renton had anticipated this and spun to his left to face Tyler, who released Renton's arm, startled, and barely dodged a fist aimed at his nose, _What? He's fast,_ he thought as he dodged a knee aimed at his stomach with difficulty and swung to the left, extending the two fingers he had used to steal countless lives, this was only one more.

_but he lacks experience…_

He thrust the hand towards Renton's nose and looked into the eyes of his next victim, his own widened and he froze, for a moment he mistook the face as his own, "You're..."

He was composed by the swish of Renton's fist, less than an inch from his right ear, he thinned his eyes, withdrew the fingers into a fist, and made contact with Renton, sending him flying quite a way backwards.

Renton hit the metal floor face first with a loud bang,

…_I'm sorry, Eureka…_

he tried to get up, but felt a pain in his lung as Tyler rolled him face up with his foot.

…_I promised I'd always protect you…_

for a moment the two looked into each others purple eyes, "I didn't know there was anyone else like me in this world." thought Tyler aloud,

"Like you?"

Tyler almost smiled, "You didn't know." he chuckled, _I should have guessed, I know he wasn't like that when we first met… He didn't have those eyes,_ "When you wake up, look in a mirror… I'm sorry… what you told me before, I understand it's just…" he almost lost composure despite his grievous training, his false smile faded slowly into a painful frown, and a single tear rolled down his face, "…It's either you or me…"

Tyler lifted his foot to kick Renton in his face,

_Eureka… I have to break that promise…_

Tyler's heel made contact with Renton's temple, and he faded into unconsciousness.


	19. Not Quite Human

Chapter Nineteen: Not Quite Human

"Stop! You can't leave, not yet, you haven't fully recovered!"

"I'm fine! Just shut up and move out of the way!"

"But-"

"My health is my business, now **move out of the way!**"

Renton slowly became aware of an argument raging around him, he tried to open his eyes but realized they were already open, he blinked a few times and his blurred surroundings came into view. He was in a white room on a bed of some sort, out of the corner of his eye he saw a silver bar running close to the ceiling, and hanging from that bar was a drape or curtain of some sort, it was half open. He turned his head to face it, and spotted Mischa on the other side, restraining someone,

"What's going on?" he asked, he found his own voice somewhat bland and alien,

For a moment there was silence, "Renton?" came Mischa's voice, a second later the curtain slid the rest of the way open revealing Dominic, who wore a confused or startled expression, Renton couldn't tell which, and his own misunderstanding of these familiar expressions confused him.

Renton slowly realized a pain in his forehead and raised his arm to touch it, "I think…" he squinted as the pain worsened slightly, "…there's something wrong with me…"

Mischa and Dominic still stood staring at him, neither said a word, "What..?" he asked, but the emotion he put into these words seemed dulled slightly, _No… I know there's something wrong with me…_ he thought as the pain worsened again and he inhaled sharply but quietly, This is the infirmary…_why am I here?_

"Mischa… I can't remember, why am I here?"

"But," said Mischa, breaking the one-sided silence and making dashing towards here medical computers at the far side of the room, "According to this and…" she began typing madly, "…and to the velocity and vicinity of the kick, you should be in a coma, if not dead… but you were just…"

"Just… what?" asked Renton, his heart rate increasing slowly,

Mischa looked up, she looked like she had seen a ghost, her expression was creepy at the least, "Renton you… just got in here two hours ago…"

"So? What's the big deal?"

"…you died an hour later…"

Renton laughed lamely, "You know, that's not very funny."

"It's not a joke, Renton." said Dominic,

"Do I look dead to you? I don't feel very dead… Listen, I'm not in the mood for this, I've got a really bad headache right now so stop fooling around, what's going on, why am I here?"

There was an awkward silence for a moment, then; "That's right, he's obviously alive and he looks well enough, we should be concentrating on why Tyler did what he did and what he'll do next."

_Tyler… that's right, I remember, _"I remember," he repeated out loud, his eyes widening as he recalled the previous events, "Where's Eureka? How long has it been? Could…" he touched his face as he remembered what Tyler had said, and how he didn't quite feel like himself, he listed the ways in his head,

_My voice, emotional expression, and my head,_

_He told me to look in a mirror when I woke up, he obviously hadn't intended to kill me… but why a mirror?_ An extraordinary explanation occurred to him,

"…Could you give me a mirror?"

Mischa averted her eyes and nodded, reaching behind her back she pulled a small hand-held mirror off the desk and offered it to Renton, who took it without a word, raised it, and looked stared into it. His explanation was confirmed as he looked into his own eye, which was no longer a light sky blue, but a dark shade of violet with a small, seemingly transpiring red ring hidden in the depths of the said iris,

'_Someone else like me'… so that's what he meant,_ thought Renton, he dropped the mirror onto the bed and raised his hand to his head, which hurt more than ever. "So…" he said his gaze directed at his toes, "…he was right, I'm a-"

"No, you're not a Coralian." Interrupted Mischa, a serious look on her face, "You're more of a hybrid, half human half Coralian."

"How?"

"It was most likely… Oh, I really have no idea to tell you the truth." replied Mischa, burying her face in one hand.

Mischa and Dominic pulled their gazes up towards Renton, surprised, "All I need to know, is where Eureka is."

"We don't know," said Dominic, and his gaze dropped back towards the ground,

"But, the Coralians can see the Trapar!" realized Mischa, "If you're half Coralian, you may be able to also. It's only been a few hours, the discrepancies in the waves should still be present for awhile, you could follow them."

"But without the Nirvash you wouldn't have a chance at breaking into any decent military base," stated Dominic,

"You're getting ahead of yourself, Dominic." replied Mischa, shifting her gaze towards Dominic, "We don't even know if Tyler ran off to a military base, though that would be the assumption."

"Without the Nirvash? He took the Nirvash too? But it wouldn't accept him under those conditions, would it?" asked Renton,

"It was a virus, he put some kind of infected compac drive into the Nirvash." Replied Dominic, rubbing his chin hopefully,

"Isn't Anemone a Coralian? Shouldn't someone have already been sent out? She could guide them."

"HE took her too." said Dominic, "leaving you alive may just be his fatal mistake."

"No, I think he wanted to be found." Replied Renton,

"Why would you think that?" asked Mischa, confused,

"I don't know…" replied Renton, "…just call it a gut feeling…"

"But there isn't time, we have to go!" realized Dominic suddenly, it had already been thirteen minutes, "Holland, Matthieu and Hilda set out an hour and a half ago with the remaining LFOs, you'll have to catch up with a normal Ref board. You should be able to pull it off if you end up being able to see the trapar like Mischa predicts."

"But how can I fight without an LFO?"  
"Do you remember how Tyler fought during you're mission?" asked Mischa, walking forward and picking up the mirror from the bed,

"Yeah but-"

"I've studied him a bit and it's pretty odd, I don't know if you can do this or not but…" she placed the wood mirror on a metal chair, "It's doesn't actually happen because he touches the object, but because of his intentions when he touches it, I don't know why or how that works but that's how it is. Try it here, touch this mirror with the intent of damaging it."

"Um, okay. But from what I've seen, if it works won't it spread and destroy the Gekko-Go?"

"No. It only spreads through fused particles, the mirror and the chair are two separate objects, the particles that make the mirror are fused and the particles that make the chair are fused, but they are not fused with each other."

"Are you sure? It sounds like you just made that up out of the blue." replied Renton,

Mischa put her hand to her head, "Yes I'm sure, just trust me here."

"Alright here it goes."

Renton extended his arm and touched the mirror. From the point where his hand made contact it slowly dissolved in a mass of green and yellow sparks. Renton jumped back, he hadn't actually expected it to work, especially so easily.

"That's how you'll fight." answered Mischa with a smirk. "Now grab you're board and meet me at the air lock."


	20. P1 End: The End of the Beginning

Chapter Twenty: The End of the Beginning

Renton traversed the hallways heading for his old room where Mischa said his board was, _It's probably too small by now,_ he thought as he reached the door and tugged it open. He gaped slightly upon the sight of his old room, he couldn't remember the last time he saw his room, but if memory served at all it hadn't changed a bit in the past year. It was a small room, about the size of the two bunks in Eureka's room arranged end to end, and at the far side of the room was a round window overlooking the left wing of the Gekko-Go, his sleeping bag lay rolled up at the base of the right wall from the door and on the other wall leaned his ref board, it seemed as though someone had been taking good care of it while he was gone. He grabbed the board and jogged out of the room, _Eureka, wait for me,_ the thought of her face hit him hard and he sped up, reaching the airlock in a record time of thirty-two seconds.

"About time, you ready?" asked Dominic as Renton slid to a halt,

"Yeah," replied Renton as Dominic turned the wheel mounted on the wall, opening the hatch. The wind pushed in, blowing both of the two's hair upwards, "Where's Mischa?"

A grave look crossed Dominic's face, "The 606 just returned to the Gekko, apparently the 808 was destroyed by another Nirvash look alike and Hilda's injured, Mischa has to take a look at her."

"Nirvash look alike?"

"Yeah, they're calling this one the typeANGEL, I've never heard of it before, I never even heard that it was in development."

"Never mind, which way is Holland?"

"Straight ahead, twelve O' Clock"

"Alright I'm off." With this Renton jumped through the opening and out of the Gekko-Go, he looked around to survey his surroundings, _I can…_ he thought, looking around, strange faint, transparent, white, streaming lines were visible all around him, _She was right, I can see the waves! Sweet!_ He threw his board under his feet milliseconds before hitting one of the larger wavy white streams and jetting forward at a speed he hardly thought possible, and cutting up and to the left just before the end of the wave to catch another, even bigger one, surprising himself with his own incredible reflexes. _This is so **sweet!** Eureka, I'll be there in no time, just wait, Eureka! Wait for me!_

Holland coughed as he forced open the crumpled hatch of his broken 909 and looked up at the gigantic green and white LFO looming over him, and chuckled, "I never did like you, but I didn't think it would come to this." He said, wiping blood from his forehead before it could reach his eyes.

The LFO raised its left arm, and pointed a wrist mounted laser cannon directly at Holland, the cockpit opened and Tyler stood up, "Finally time to end this? It's been fun…" he said down towards the ragged man, "Don't worry, Eureka will not be harmed, I'll make sure of it… I'll definitely make sure of that."

"Is that what this was about? Do you think Eureka is being harmed?"

there was a short silence, "…No… This is to prevent harm from befalling another. To be honest, if Renton hadn't reminded me of the pain of losing someone so close…" his eyes thinned as painful thoughts filled his mind, "…I probably wouldn't have gone though with this…" Tyler shook his recently trimmed hair instinctively, composing himself, "But we've talked too long, it's time to end it."

Tyler sat back down and closed the cockpit, he pressed a few buttons and pulled a lever and the cannon began to charge, Holland scanned the area for cover but there was nothing but the broken 909.

Holland blinked, a faint swishing could be heard from somewhere above and he looked towards the sky to see a distant object closing in quickly silhouetted by a mess of green and white spark-like objects. _606, Matthieu? It's about damn time, he's always… _he trailed off as the object drew nearer, _That's not an LFO,_ thought Tyler, watching the object that could now be easily recognized as, _Renton… _thought Holland and Tyler simultaneously, _Renton… thanks,_ thought Tyler with a smile as he shifted the cannon to face Renton and fired.

_What's that? A laser? _Thought Renton as he watched the pink projectile come nearer and nearer, it was clearly a laser, but it seemed to move so slowly. Renton swerved to the side and easily avoided it, he watched as it passed him, and circled around it, examining it on all sides, suddenly he was past it, and he looked back down towards the giant LFO from which it had originated, then towards the wreckage of the 909, then towards Holland, he grinned slightly, though he didn't know why. _So you're the one,_ he thought, shifting his gaze back towards the green and white Nirvash look alike, his smile turned to a frown and he upped his pace and sped towards it, "**Where's EUREKA?"**

Part One End


	21. P2 Start: Angel

Chapter Twenty-One: Angel

Tyler tightened his grip on the LFOs controls, _everything's going according to plan,_ he smiled, he had made up his mind a long time ago, he had strived for almost a year to make this day possible, it seemed unrealistic that, was he to falter here, it would all be for not. "Angel," he whispered, still his grin fading, "It's time." He pulled back on the two steering levers and pressed down on one of the pedals in the floor, and the typeANGEL skyrocketed to just below the first cloud layer, silhouetted by the full moon through a small gap in the clouds, before six red bars extended from it's back, three in each direction, the end of each topped with cruel looking spines. Once all six bars had extended, thinner white folding 'sheets' of metal extended from the bottom and top bars towards the middle bars where they entered small slits and were locked in place, forming two gigantic wings, each of which were almost as large as the LFO itself.

Tyler messed with the controls a bit, testing the joints and flexibility of the wings,

"I don't think so," grunted Holland, back in the cockpit of the destroyed 909, as he aimed the main cannons towards the Angel and fired.

Tyler started and looked down at the purple beam hurtling his way, _Pest,_ he thought as he strained to pull the machine around, he pulled a third lever back then down, and the LFO reached out towards the projectile just in time, he pressed a button on the third lever just as the projectile reached him, it bounced off a previously invisible, spherical object and was reflected to the right, skinning the LFOs left arm,

_Damn it! _thought Holland, _How the hell can he pilot such a complex LFO?_

Tyler exhaled sharply but quietly and clutched his left arm with his right hand, _I was to slow, the field didn't have time to fully form…_ he thought, looking down at the source of the attack, _He's persistent, isn't he?_ He aimed the heat cannon mounted on the Angel's right arm towards the 909 again and fired, _Crap!_ Thought Holland, jumping out and running from the 909, but it was pointless, the laser missed the cockpit completely, cleaving off the 909s main cannon, its last weapon.

Holland paused and looked up noticing the Angel's hesitation, it hadn't moved for a few seconds, he blinked, _I see, synchronization,_ he thought, a small smile crossing his face, _The synchronization of the pilot and the LFO, will allow for a dramatic increase in performance, but since he's practically one with the LFO, if you injure the LFO, you injure him… If I'm not mistaken, that's the kind of system the Super Nirvash ran on…_ his smile widened, "Did it hurt… Tyler?" he whispered.

Tyler tore his gaze from the 909 as he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, he looked up and spotted Renton closing in fast, his eyes thinned, _No breaks today… _he pointed the Angel's arm towards him and fired the cannon three times in rapid succession, forcing Renton to swerve to the left, he strained to reach the LFO with his right hand, but the Angel withdrew backwards with a thrust of its wings and jetted upward, performing a quick spiral and speeding away, _Damn, _swore Renton, making a sharp turn to the right and following the Angel.

Renton sped past and sometimes through clouds, trailing behind the Angel, though no matter how well he rode the waves, no matter how much he strained, he never seemed any closer, he was sure that Tyler was either teasing him or leading him into a trap, all the same he had no choice other than to follow him so follow him he did. _We should be reaching the wide patrol soon._ thought Tyler, looking over his shoulder to make sure Renton hadn't fallen behind, when he had made sure Renton was still there he looked back ahead, _It's almost time…_

For another minute or two they flew through the clouds before descending down below them into the open to be greeted by three heavy blue military KLFs, all three pointing their weapons straight at the Angel, a screen appeared in the left part of the cockpit, "Unit 936? My apologies sir! We weren't expecting you back so early." came a deep crackling voice from the leader of the patrol,

Tyler pointed one arm at each of the two outside KLFs and fired the cannons, melting holes clean through the KLFs and sending yellow sparks and drops of glowing orange molten metal fanning out behind them.

The face in the screen changed completely, "What the hell are-"

Tyler pressed a button and razors extended from the tops of the upper bars of the wings, he sped past the last KLF, slicing it in two, then pressed the button again and the razors contracted. A second later the remains of the three KLFs lost their momentum and began to fall towards the earth,

Tyler watched the three KLFs fall to the ground, then looked back ahead, where a towering structure could be seen in the distance, _It's begun._


	22. Central Peak

Chapter Twenty-Two: Central Peak

Renton held his arm before his face in an attempt to thwart the ferocious winds, he lowered it slightly to watch the Angel and make sure it was still before him, which it was. Renton closed his eyes as he turned right and up towards a larger wave and the pressure of the wind increased, when the pressure had subsided slightly he opened them again, the Angel was gone.

_What?_

he scanned the area, looking all around until he spotted the LFO again, it had halted and was now some ways behind him, hovering in place. "Renton, can you hear me?" came a voice through the small communicator clipped onto his pocket that Mischa had made him bring, he looked down at it and fumbled to pluck it off his pants,

"Who is it? This is a really bad time!"

"Renton, it's Tyler. I have a-"

"You? You've got some guts to talk to me now!"

"Renton li-"

"Return Eureka!"

"I don't have her,"

"Then who the hell does?"

"That's what I was about to tell you."

Tyler was silent, waiting for Renton's reply, but Renton was also silent, _What? Did he just say he'd tell me? Come to think of it he just destroyed military KLFs, does that mean he's working independently or for a third party?... unless he's…_

"Spit it out!" he yelled towards the LFO, which remained immobile for a moment, then raised its arm and pointed over Renton's shoulder, Renton turned to face the gigantic structure in the distance, and his jaw dropped. The base of the structure penetrated the lower cloud layer and spanned what looked like somewhere between seven and ten miles from end to end, it was circular with countless tubes the width of large buildings spiraling around the exterior, also reaching through the clouds, black dots buzzed about to the left of the building.

"Is that… a military base?" asked Renton slowly, still staring at the awesome fortification,

"That's THE military base, the U.T.F. citadel, Central Peak. It replaced Capital Hill when the scab left and we had to rebuild everything, it's still under construction, and it's where all the big shots of the military live and work. To be honest I've got no idea how they've made this much progress on it in just a year."

"The U.T.F.?" asked Renton, tearing his eyes away from the impossibly large building and directing them at the Angel,

"The United Tower Federation, I thought you would know that, they've always been you're enemies, or so I was told."

"I've only ever called them the United Federation."

"That's odd, they were very widely known and respected by the name United Tower Federation, but that doesn't matter, Eureka is in that building."

Renton slowly raised his hand to his head and groaned, "I was afraid you would say that," he said as he ran the hand down his face.

_What are you thinking…?_ Thought Renton, and he repeated the words out loud, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you asked," replied Tyler simply, averting his eyes,

…_and because, now is the last chance I'll have to get 'her' back…_

"…and because, now is the last chance we'll have to get her back…"

"'We'?" asked Renton, blinking, "Just who's side are you on anyways?"

Tyler laughed silently inside the cockpit of his LFO, "Isn't that obvious?" he said, "I'm the same as you, Renton."

"Then why did you take-?"

"Idiot… my own side, of course."


	23. Suicidal Blitz 1

Chapter Twenty-Three: Suicidal Blitz 1

"We're about to enter the dead zone, get behind me and maintain radio silence." came Tyler's voice from the communicator clipped to Renton's right pocket, which he then unclipped and held up to his face.

"Yeah." was his simple reply, and he fell back behind the Angel and lowered the communicator again, this time clipping it on his left pocket, he didn't know why, but it felt more comfortable on this pocket, it felt like it balanced out better. The two had been soaring towards the gigantic citadel for nearly ten minutes now, but the structure still seemed no nearer, if anything it seemed further off.

"I'm going to break through the static HOLO barrier, stay close behind me." came Tyler's voice again,

"The what barrier?" replied Renton, he couldn't see anything like a barrier ahead of them,

"Holocaust barrier,"

"what's that?"

"Never mind, just stay close behind me."

questions multiplied in Renton's head, but he restrained himself, "Sure." he replied, speeding up to cut down the gap between the LFO and himself.

"And stay clear of the boosters, I'll need to use them."

He did so.

"Three, two, one…" counted Tyler, "now." flames burst from a jet set into an extrusion on the Angel's back, and the air surrounding the LFO began to ripple, the LFO rocketed forwards. Tyler pulled back on a lever protruding from the right wall of the cockpit, and the LFO extended its right arm, opening it's palm, he then pushed in a red button on the attached to this lever.

A blinding light forced Renton's arm up to his face,

"Agh!" he yelled as colorful dots danced in his closed eyes, "What the hell was that!"

When there was no reply and the dots had faded, he opened his eyes again and was greeted by a wondrous sight.

The colossal structure which had seemed so far off only a few seconds before now towered overhead, not more than a mile away. The peak of the citadel was so far up it was impossible to see from such a range, and the width of the structure seemed even greater from closer up. The Angel was still just in font of him,

"You can back off now," said Tyler,

"What was that?" asked Renton again as he edged away from the LFO,

"We just broke through the HOLO field,"

"What IS a HOLO field?"

"… A kind of camouflage barrier, when you look at it you see whatever the programmers want you to see. In this case it makes it seem like you're quite a distance away from this citadel when in fact you're right next to it. I also wouldn't recommend touching it unless you have a death wish. Don't ask me for details, I don't know much about it, if you want to learn more you should ask the tech frea- scientists." replied Tyler,

"What are those?" asked Renton, spotting numerous black specks advancing from both left and right flanks.

"They're coming." replied Tyler.

He was right, soon Renton could make out the details of hundreds of military battle ships, KLFs, and even a few LFOs heading their way. Tyler turned and aimed both arms towards a large, garage-like steel door in the near side of the citadel, rocket launchers protruded from each shoulder of the gigantic Angel, and he fired everything at once. 50 heat-seeking rockets and laser after laser hurdled towards the door, and when the smoke cleared there was literally nothing left of it,

"See that opening?" asked Tyler, pointing to the newly created gap,

"Get in there and follow the main hallway to the prison block, it'll be obvious when you get there."

"What? How about you?"

"I'll stay out here and take pot shots and them," here he pointed at the hundreds of oncoming enemy crafts, "Once I've done enough damage here I'll catch up. I may not even need to if you hurry. There should be another prisoner in Eureka's cell, take her as well, she'll be useful in the long run. Don't ask questions, just get going!"

Renton froze for a moment, taking everything that had been said into his mind, then yelled; "Alright!" and was off.

_Good, for some reason I thought he would argue or ask more of his questions… God, the questions..._ thought Tyler as he began firing projectiles randomly into one of the black clouds of enemies. A few fell, and his fire was returned to no avail. Battleship main cannons glanced off the Angel's now fully generated field as though they were nothing and flew back towards them.

_Fools…_ thought Tyler, continuously firing into the oncoming crowd _…They should know the only way to damage the Angel while this field is active is through melee combat…_

Another massive laser bounced off the invisible protective sphere and hurdled back towards the military,

…_They should also know that I won't let them get close enough for that… No, they do know these things, I know they do… so what are they up to? Do they even realize this is the Angel they are firing at?_


End file.
